


fourteen days and twenty-eight kisses

by astaeria



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: A lot of kissing, Angst, Comfort, Fluff, Heartbreak, Hurt, Jaeno, Kissing, M/M, nomin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2018-12-02 10:48:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 21,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11507838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astaeria/pseuds/astaeria
Summary: jaemin and jeno are (forced to be) on a two-week adventure together to fight against one of the most mentally fatal diseases in the universe: lovesickness.





	1. day 0

I love you.

I love you, too.

"Turn the television off."

Jisung turned to Jaemin and smiled at his sudden command. "Why? It's a cute show."

"It's a disgusting show!" Jaemin protested, snatching the television remote from Jisung's hand and changing the channel.

"You think of it that way because you're bitter about still being single," Jisung said in a sing-song tone.

"I'm not," Jaemin denied under his breath, pressing the buttons with utter force out of hidden frustration. "It's nothing to be bitter about."

"Yes, it is. You're being bitter about it right now."

"I'm not."

"You are."

"I'm not!"

"You are!"

"I'm—"

"Sorry for being so late!" Out of the sudden, Mark bursted in the room with Donghyuck, followed by Renjun and Chenle, who were pulling Jeno in with them.

"Honestly, we could have been here thirty minutes ago, but..." Mark couldn't continue his sentence due to the heavy panting that he was producing, as if all of his energy was worn out.

"What happened?" Jisung asked with worry as he turned to the newly-arrived and tired boys.

"We had to handle a few errands," Renjun answered in an exhausted tone.

"Like?'"

"Holding Donghyuck hyung back before he could beat up Jeno hyung's girlfriend." Chenle answered with the same tone, sending Jaemin and Jisung signals that it was a tough task to accomplish.

"Ex-girlfriend," Donghyuck corrected Chenle, hissing and twisting his face with disgust towards the mention of Jeno's former partner.

"That's enough, Donghyuck," Mark sternly said, laying a hand on Donghyuck's shoulder as an attempt to calm him down.

"I'm alright," Jeno butted in between his hiccups as he rubbed his reddish eyes.

"You're not!" Renjun protested, slapping Jeno's hand away from his eyes. "Have you seen yourself?!"

"That's not how you comfort someone stuck in a situation like this, Hyung," Chenle told Renjun in a hushed tone.

Even when the living room was filled with loud bickering between the boys, Jaemin felt like the whole world went silent as he observed Jeno.

Before, the latter had something that never failed to make anyone's day brighter and better: his signature eye smile that could light a whole country.

There was never a day where it didn't show, but ever since they were together, it became shinier, especially when her name rolled off his tongue while sharing stories about how he spent his time with her.

Now, it was absent and was replaced by nothing but utter melancholy, which not only made Jaemin worry to no end, but also fill his mind with endless questions.

Love was supposed to heal you, not break you, right?

If it could, then did it hurt that much?

If it did, then should he stop thinking about finding for something that was only going to hurt him further?

Maybe I should, Jaemin thought to himself.

Suddenly, Jaemin shook his head, urging those types of thoughts to stop coming in his head.

One of his best friends were suffering from a huge heartbreak. His non-existent heartbreak shouldn't matter to him nor to anyone else.

It never will, anyway.

Jaemin had to help Jeno.

Jaemin was reeled back to reality when Mark had stood up from the couch and shouted in a loud volume. "Shut up! Shut up. Everyone, listen to me. We came here to my house because we were going to have a good time after a whole week of being stuck in the hell hole that we call school, so instead of fighting over this, why don't we do something else?"

"I agree with Mark hyung's idea," Donghyuck agreed, standing up alongside Mark.

"You agree with every single one of Mark hyung's ideas," Jisung pointed out in a deadpan tone.

"Listen here, you little shit—"

Jaemin's lips curved into a small smirk as he watched Mark hold Donghyuck back from hitting Jisung, who was laughing his lungs out.

"Seriously, seriously, seriously," Renjun butted in, standing up as well. "Mark hyung's still right. Let's forget about what happened for a while and have some fun. No girls, no boys, no school. Just us."

Jaemin saw how Renjun looked at them then discreetly nodded at Jeno, who was looking at the floor like it was the most interesting thing he had seen the whole time he was alive.

"I'll take everyone's answers as an agreeing statement to what Renjun just said," Mark said with a smile as he walked to his back and took out his water bottle. "Now, how about a round of Spin and Dare?"

With that, everyone made their way to the floor and took the places they usually took when playing Spin and Dare—a game where the players will spin the bottle and whoever lands on both ends of the bottle will have to do a dare the rest of the players will decide on for them.

Playing games like these were usually really fun, because it's either you watch someone feel embarrassed or you are the one feeling embarrassed, but as much as the dares were really intense, Jaemin couldn't enjoy the game to the fullest for his attention couldn't stop shifting from the players to Jeno, who seemed to not enjoy the game as well.

Jaemin frowned at the sight and thought about how he could help him out. His mind was so occupied by his thoughts about wondering what's occupying Jeno's mind that he didn't notice how the bottle landed on both of them.

Both boys only noticed this when Jisung suddenly stood up from where he was sitting and pulled the other players out of the circle, as if trying to tell them something that the two shouldn't hear.

They looked at each other, melancholiac expressions changing into confused ones, then turned to the others as they sat back down with strange smiles on their faces.

"Thanks to Jisung," Chenle started. "we have decided on your dare."

"It's going to be a little more complicated than the usual dares that we have been using against everyone," Renjun continued.

"Are you two willing to agree to do this dare?" Jisung said as he laid his hands on each of their shoulders.

"They can't say no because of the punishment for denial," Donghyuck said as he smirked and shrugged. "They'll have to."

Jaemin and Jeno looked at each other again—this time, with worry—then turned back to the others befote nodding and waiting for the words of the dare to leave Jisung's mouth.

"Fourteen days and twenty-eight kisses."

Jaemin had to help Jeno, but he didn't think that he'll be helping him in this way.


	2. day 1

Jaemin buried his face in his hands as he let out a loud groan that was left unheard because of the noise of the huge crowd in the school cafeteria. "I can't believe you made us do this!"

He parted a few fingers to look through them and see Donghyuck as he curved his lips into a sly smirk.

"Well, Jisung had a point," Donghyuck said, shrugging as he took a bite from his sandwich. "Both you and Jeno were suffering from the same sickness, so if we made you do this dare, we would be helping you two help each other out."

"Yoy talk about lovesickness as if it can kill," Jaemin mumbled.

"It can, Hyung," Jisung said, closing his Iron Man lunch box. "Out of all the people, I know that you know that the most."

"I'm not lovesick."

"Says the one who sends me late night messages about how he wants to know how it feels like to have someone to cuddle every night."

"Yoy don't have any evidences. Oh, no. Oh, hold on! Don't pull out your phone! Don't—"

"Heh," Mark butted in, sitting next to Donghyuck, followed by a smiling Renjun and a silent Jeno. "What's the fuss all about?"

"Nothing," Jaemin hissed, glaring at Jisung, who simply shrugged with a smile while keeping his phone in his pocket.

Mark raised an eyebrow and looked at Donghyuck, who looked back at him and shrugged with a smile as well.

With that, conversation broke out between the boys. They were all talking about their previous and next classes after break, except for Jaemin, who was watching Jeno as he was looked at somewhere else.

Well, someone else.

Jaemin frowned as he saw the sad sparkle present in Jeno's eyes, which were actually tears threatening to spill.

"Hey," Jaemin whispered loud enough, hesitatingly tapping Jeno's hand and snapping him out of his train of thoughts.

He wanted to asked Are you okay? but the way the latter immediately wiped away the tears he tried to hide with a forced smile and an I'm alright answered it for him.

No, I'm not.

"Have you eaten?" Jaemin asked, trying to distract Jeno away from what was causing him to cry.

"No," Jeno said as he shook his head. "I'm not really hungry, so it's alright."

"Are you sure?" Jaemin asked again, standing up. "I can buy you something."

"No," Jeno repeated as he suddenly took his hand and held it, trying to insist him. "It's alright, really."

Jaemin frowned at their held hands, which was etched deeper into his face as the bell rang, signaling the students that it was time to come back to their respective classrooms.

He heaved a sigh and nodded, then felt warmth leave his hand as their hands parted.

The two boys looked at the rest of their crew, who seemed to be too into their conversation to go to their rooms, so they looked at each other and made a silent agreement to ditch them.

On the way to Jeno's classroom, Jaemin noticed how Jeno's eyes were lost and looking ahead of them, as if he was looking for something.

He didn't have to ask to know what—well, who it was.

"Hey," Jaemin said, holding Jeno's hand to stop him from walking further. "Your classroom is over here."

Jeno turned to him then to the door his room, taken aback as he realized that he had zoned out once again.

"Oh, right," Jeno mumbled, shining a small sheepish smile and scratching the back of his neck with embarrassment. "I'm sorry."

Jaemin smiled back. "It's fine."

Before Jeno had completely turned to his classroom, Jaemin called his name under his breath. "Jeno."

The called boy turned to him, raising an eyebrow. "What is it, Jaemin?"

Jaemin looked down on his feet, trying to think about whether what he was about to do was going to be a smart move, but then, he decided to screw it as he looked up at Jeno and swiftly planted a soft kiss on his forehead.

Jaemin then pulled away, fighting back his blush of embarrassment as he scanned Jeno's surprised face.

He thought that he was going to die right then and there because he didn't know how Jeno was going to react, but as the latter's lips curved into a shy smile, he felt his soul separate from his body and leave him on the mortal plane.

He then watched as Jeno kissed the back of his hand that he didn't realize he was still holding and let go of it.

Before the awkward air could suffocate them, the two turned away without another word, embarrassment filling them from their heads to their toes.


	3. day 2

As he was walking his way out of the school to go home, Jaemin stopped in his tracks at the sight of students crowding around the school billboard, giving him the idea that the school faculty had posted something so interesting that it caught everyone's attention.

Jaemin was in the middle of contemplating whether he should bother going through the crowd to see what's up or not when another student had stood beside him. His attention shifted from the school billboard to the student, who was actually Jeno.

"Hey," Jaemin stuttered out of awkwardness as the dare came back in his mind.

"Hey," Jeno responded in the same manner, making Jaemin wonder if he was feeling the same way toward the dare that their friends had handed over to them a few days ago.

"Uh," Jaemin blurted out, attempting to make the atmosphere between them become lighter. "Do you know what's going on over there?"

"Sort of," Jeno answered, turning to jaemin. "There's going to be an event in a few weeks from now."

"What kind?"

"What do you think?"

Jaemin squinted his eyes at Jeno, trying to figure out whether his sentence was sarcastic or not, but then he thought about the events that were about to occur.

"For Valentine's day?" Jaemin guessed, which Jeno nodded at.

Jaemin uttered a short bitter laugh. "What's so special about that? It's not like any of the students care about those type of events in this school, much less the single ones, which is like...ninety nine point ninety nine percent of the school's population."

"When they told me that you were bitter about being single, I thought Jisung was joking," Jeno joked, smirking. "I guess not."

"I'm not bitter," Jaemin argued as he turned and tried to walk away.

"Sure," Jeno said, rolling his eyes as he followed Jaemin. "Anyway, the others are getting hyped over the Valentine's day event because of the Music project."

"What music project?" Jaemin asked as he turned to him, obviously confused and curious.

"Didn't Ma'am tell you about that Music project?" Jeno knitted his eyebrows together, also confused. "Oh, your Music is scheduled tomorrow, not today."

"Students in our level will have to pick a partner and a performance to do," Jeno started to explain as he opened the school doors for both boys to come out of. "Your partner could be from the other section, and your performance could be singing, dancing, or acting, as long as it's appropriate for the event and for our age. The pair with the best performance will be picked to play at the event."

"Oh, cool," Jaemin muttered, not sure whether he was interested or not. "I was not informed about this."

"Well, now you are," Jeno pointed out.

"Will you go?" Jaemin suddenly asked Jeno, who seemed to be taken aback by the question.

"Of course I am," Jeno answered matter-of-factly. "Technicaly, we all need to. This is our Music exam, you know."

"Really?!" Jaemin exclaimed, surprised. "I have to take this seriously, then."

Jeno just hummed as a response.

After a while of silent walking under the slowly darkening sky, Jaemin broke the awkward silence by asking another question "Do you already have a partner for this project?"

Jaemin turned to Jeno and saw how his eyes flickered with sadness a moment before he shook his head and shone a small sheepish smile.

"Oh," Jaemin muttered, nodding.

"What? Were you supposed to ask me to be your partner?" Jeno joked.

"Yoy don't know that," Jaemin protested, rolling his eyes, which made Jeno laugh.

A while later, as they arrived in front of Jaemin's house, Jaemin turned to Jeno and shone a smile at him. "Thanks for walking with me home, even if I didn't ask for it."

"You, you did." Jeno smirked, shrugging. "I saw that thirsty look in your eyes that said Oh, my god. Jeno is so good-looking. I want him to walk with me home."

"Leave," Jaemin demanded as a response, trying to shove the smirking Jeno away.

As Jeno was about to do what Jaemin "wanted" him to do, the dare crawled in his thoughts, making Jaemin call for his name. "Wait! Jeno!"

When Jeno turned to him with a raised eyebrow, Jaemin covered his mouth, feeling his face turn hot with embarrassment. With this gesture, Jeno's face was drained with color as well as he must have got what Jaemin wanted to say.

After a while of looking at each other under the awkward atmosphere, Jaemin shook his head and started. "I-It's okay. You don't have to do it."

As he was too busy with trying to convince the other boy that it was alright, Jaemin didn't notice that Jeno was actually already approaching him to the point where their faces were only centimeters apart.

"It's alright," Jeno whispered in his ear in a shaky tone.

With that, a pair of lips were lightly pressed against Jaemin's cheek.

Jaemin looked at jeno, stunned. The former then realized that the latter was still standing around because he was waiting for his share to be given, so Jaemin heaved a sigh and leaned in, kissing Jeno's cheek in the same manner.

"Ew," Jeno said in a jokingly manner, laying a few fingers on the cheek Jaemin kissed. "You kiss horribly."

Feeling the flustered feelings flush out of his body with his statement, Jaemin rolled his eyes and turned away, walking to the door and leaving Jeno.


	4. day 3

"Alright, class," Jaemin's class' Music teacher called as she laid her things on the teacher's table. "Are all of you aware of the upcoming music project?"

"No," The class chorused except for Jaemin, who was smiling as he was already aware, thanks to Jeno.

"Really?" Their Music teacher asked, raising an eyebrow. "Whatever, whatever. Anyway, the Music project is a performance for the upcoming Valentine's day—"

The class erupted into different reactions: "Oh, my god!" "Awesome!" "Gross!" "Do we have to do this?"

"I'm not done," The Music teacher pointed out, making the class fall silent. "Anyway, the mechanics for this project is you will have to pick a partner and a performance to do. Partners can come from the other section, while the performance can be singing, dancing, or acting, as long as it is appropriate for the event and for your age, as well."

Snickers passed by the room at the mention of for your age, making Jaemin roll his eyes as his response to his classmates' thoughts.

"When is the performance?" one of Jaemin's classmates asked.

"A day before Valentine's day," The Music teacher answered. "because the pair with the best performance will perform on the actual event for Valentine's day."

Oohs and aahs erupted around the classroom.

"Valentine's day is in two weeks, so as soon as now, you should pick your partners and decide on what to do for the project," The Music teacher advised, sitting down and picking up a folder. "So far, only a few pairs had signed up."

She scanned through the contents, then looked from the folder to Jaemin as she said "One of them is Lee Jeno and Na Jaemin."

Jaemin's eyes widened with shock. He looked at Donghyuck, who was looking back at him with an amused smile on his face as he sat on the other end of the classroom.

Jaemin turned back to their Music teacher, who was still looking through the folder.

Jaemin didn't remember signing up for anything.

Did Jeno do this?

-

As soon as it was dismissal, Jaemin rushed to the exit of the classroom, wanting to talk to Jeno about the unannounced sign up when he had suddenly and strangely found him right beside their classroom door.

"Jeno—" Jaemin screeched out of surprise, not expecting him to be standing there. "What the fuck, Jeno?! Yoy scared the shit out of me!"

Jeno's lips curved into a small smile, taking Jaemin aback.

It was different from his smiles on the day after their breakup...but seeing how it still wasn't reaching his eyes, he knew it wasn't enough.

Strangely, this made Jaemin's heart twist in his chest.

"Jaemin?" Jeno called.

"Yeah?" Jaemin answered, still stunned.

"What happened to you?" Jeno asked him, raising an eyebrow as he adjusted the straps of his backpack on his shoulders. "Just a minute ago, you were rushing, but now, you're just standing there. Is there something up?"

With that, Jaemin was reeled back to reality.

"Yes, there is something up!" Jaemin exclaimed, surprising Jeno. "How could you sign us up together for the project like that without my consent?!"

Jeno nodded while drawling out an ah, as if he finally understood what he was fussing all about.

"I didn't think you'd find out about that," Jeno admitted under his breath.

"Jeno!"

"I'm sorry!" Jeno apologized, raising his hands in surrender. "I admit, I did sign us up without telling you, but that doesn't mean I wasn't thinking about telling you."

Jaemin huffed, starting to walk his way towards the school exit. "What does that mean?"

"I wanted to ask if you were alright about us being partners," Jeno mumbled, trailing behind Jaemin with his hands stuffed inside his pockets—a gesture Jaemin knew Jeno does when he's flustered. "but I didn't get to do that because I was too—"

"Shy?" Jaemin cutted Jeno off, smirking.

"What—"

"Pfft, Jeno was shy!" Jaemin teased, turning to him and smirking wider. "Ain't that the cutest thing?"

"I suddenly regret signing us up together." Jeno muttered, making Jaemin laugh.

"I'm just kidding," Jaemin pointed out. "Also, I'm actually alright about being partners with you."

Jeno looked up at Jaemin, his face lighting up. "Really?"

"Really," Jaemin repeated. "because after seeing our adorable Lee Jeno act all shy, I could expose you to the others."

"I'm dropping you."

"There's no use, because I still know the truth."

After laughing at Jeno rolling his eyes, Jaemin continued. "Besides, working with you would be so cool, with your epic skills in doing everything. You can sing, dance, act, and play the guitar! Talk about a talented boy.."

Jaemin smirked as he noticed how a light tint of red was brushing across his cheeks.

"I'm not that cool," Jeno denied. "and even if you are, we can't forget about you. You're awesome at singing and dancing, too."

Jaemin felt his heart strings tugged at Jeno's compliments. Even though it wasn't a lot, he still felt flustered over his words, especially at how he said it so sweetly, and how he added a sweet smile in the end, as if he wasn't playing with his emotions enough.

"Thanks," Jaemin simply stuttered.

As they arrived in front of his house, Jaemin turned to Jeno with a look of realization as he said "Oh, I realized that this whole partner thing can help us with something else."

"What?" Jeno asked, intrigued.

"The dare," Jaemin answered, immediately regretting mentioning the dare as he saw how Jeno's face flickered with a different emotion only for a second.

"Oh," Jeno mumbled. "I guess you're right."

With that, Jeno leaned in, planting something that didn't really seem to be a kiss on Jaemin's cheek, because he just barely brushed his lips against his skin.

Jaemin returned the gesture with as much—well, less force in it, trying to hide the confused feelings in his heart.

As Jeno waved at him and walked away, Jaemin watched him, wondering about how he thought towards this whole thing they were forced to have between them.

Was it really working?


	5. day 4

Walking out of the classroom was all Jaemin needed to do to know that it wasn't.

As he stepped out of the room, Jaemin caught Jeno leaning against the wall beside the door with his eyes on someone he knew he shouldn't have his eyes on.

Jaemin heaved a heavy sigh, then wrapped his hand around Jeno's arm, shaking it to catch his attention.

"Jeno," Jaemin called.

Jeno seemed to have heard what he said for he turned to Jaemin and stood straight before nodded towards the school exit. "Let's leave."

With that, Jaemin and Jeno walked home with awkward silence sticking to them like irritating chewing gum.

"Jaemin," Jeno called, snapping him out of his thoughts and stopping him on his tracks.

"Yeah?" jaemin responded, turning to him with a raised eyebrow.

"You're awfully silent today," Jeno pointed out. "Are you alright?"

"I'm alright," Jaemin lied with a small smile.

Jeno looked like he didn't seem to buy it for a second, but then, he decided to drop the subject, much to Jaemin's relief.

Before Jaemin could get succumbed by his Jeno-revolving thoughts again, he felt his arm tugged back, stopping him from walking.

"Hey," he heard Jeno say. "We're already here."

Jaemin turned around, realizing that Jeno was right.

"Oh," Jaemin muttered in a sheepish way. "I'm sorry."

"Are you sure you're alright?" Jeno asked again.

Jaemin fell silent, not sure whether he wanted to lie again or not.

Seemingly frustrated, Jeno heaved a sigh and shook his head. "Whatever. It's getting late. I'll head off."

Jeno then leaned in to lay his kiss, but then, Jaemin noticed how he seemed to stop and hesitate, then barely press his lips on his cheek.

As the former pulled away, Jaemin looked up at his eyes only to have his heart twist at the sight of no emotion whatsoever.

Fighting back his feelings, Jaemin leaned in and kissed Jeno's forehead, before immediately turning away and heading towards the door without saying another word to Jeno.

Jaemin really wanted to help Jeno, even if it meant embarrassing himself, but by the looks of it, the dare wasn't working. Jeno was still heartbroken. Jaemin was still lacking of love.

What was the point?


	6. day 5

"Earth to Na Jaemin. Lee Donghyuck is looking for you."

Being pulled out of his train of thoughts, Jaemin turned to Donghyuck, who was suddenly sitting on the seat next to him, which wasn't where he was originally seated.

"Why are you sitting there?" Jaemin asked, knitting his eyebrows together in confusion. "You're not supposed to sit there. You're going to get in trouble."

"I'll be fine," Donghyuck hummed, putting his chin on his hand. "So, tell me about how the dare is going."

Jaemin felt his heart drop at the mention of the dare. Coincidentallg, he saw the classroom door open, revealing a bunch of students from the other section, but only one of them caught his eye—Jeno, who was staring at someone out of his vision range.

...but even when he couldn't see what he was looking at, he already knew what—well, who it was.

"It's not working." Jaemin heaved a sigh.

"Wait, what is this?" Jaemin turned to Donghyuck, who gasped. "Jaemin! You sound so stressed over that!"

Jaemin raised an eyebrow. "So?"

"Are you in love with him already?!"

Jaemin's face turned red as he registered each word from Donghyuck's question. "What the fuck, Donghyuck?!"

"Whaf? with that tone and that sigh, you make it sound like you are," Donghyuck pointed out, fiddling with his fingers. "That'd be so sad. You, someone who had heen sulking over failing at finding love, finally finds love, which doesn't turn out well anyway because that person you are in love with is in love with someone else."

Jaemin felt as if his heart was shot by an arrow—not an arrow from Cupid, but an arrow from Pain. He looked down at his textbook, mumbling. "That's not the truth, Donghyuck."

"Then what is it?"

"I...I feel helpless."

"Over what?" Donghyuck asked, intrigued over this information Jaemin was suddenly spilling on him.

"Over the fact that Jeno is out there, hurting because the one he's in love with doesn't love him back anymore," Jaemin answered, picking up his pen and playing with it as he spoke. "It's not that I like him, but I just want him to be happy again. It's not working."

"Maybe it's because both of you have something that's holding you back from making it work."

Jaemin turned to Donghyuck, surprised. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Donghyuck started, crossing his legs. "According to Renjun, Jeno is too in denial to admit that he and she are over. Meanwhile, you're too in denial to admit that you're lovesick. If both of you just cut the shit, then maybe it would work."

"I don't know what Jisung's true intentions towards this dare were," Donghyuck continued. "but I'd like to think of them as not only to have you distracted from your dangerous lovesickness, but also to make you aware of the fact that there is still love outside of the circle you're staying in, whether it's platonic or romantic or whatever."

Jaemin stared at Donghyuck, shocked.

"Wait, what is this?!" Jaemin suddenly said, repeating Donghyuck's words from earlier. "Donghyuck! You sound so wise over this subject!"

"What about it?" Donghyuck asked, obviously unaware of what Jaemin was heading to.

"Are you experienced?!" Jaemin asked, amping up the fake shock expression with the gasp and the chest clutch.

"Oh, my God!" Donghyuck exclaimed, his face filling up with a deep shade of red. "Shut up!"

As he laughed while watching Donghyuck stand up from the seat he stole and leave, Jaemin thought about what the pissed boy told him before.

If both of you just cut the shit, then maybe it would work.

Jaemin nodded.

He had to help him, so he was going to do it.

-

"Jeno!" Jaemin happily called out as he stepped out of his classroom, only to see Jeno standing in the same spot every time he waited for him with his eyes on the same person.

Jaemin's smile faltered for a second, but then he shook his doubts off and walked up to Jeno, wrapping his hand around his arm to catch his attention.

"Hey," Jeno stuttered, surprised as he was reeled back to reality.

"Hey," Jaemin responded, holding his arm to keep his attention on him. "Shall we go home?"

Jeno raised an eyebrow, probably questioning Jaemin's attitude, then simply nodded.

"How was your day?" Jaemin asked Jeno as they started walking their way out of the school.

"It was alright," Jeno muttered, almost inaudible, which made Jaemin frown.

"It doesn't seem like it," Jaemin pointed out. "What's up?"

Jaemin watched as Jeno fell silent. He noticed how his facial expression looked like he was having an inner debate with himself about if he should answer his question or not, but before he could even start speaking, he asked. "Is it because of her?"

Jeno shot him a look that Jaemin was confused with.

Did he offend him?

As soon as he felt bad for bringing her up, Jaemin immediately apologized. "Sorry—"

"Yeah," Jeno responded under his breath, as if he was afraid that Jaemin would hear. "It is because of her."

Jaemin looked up at Jeno, seeing the sad sparkle in slowly reappearing in his eyes.

The sad sparkle that was also known as tears.

Jaemin heaved a sigh, frowning. He slowed his pace in order for Jeno to catch up with him.

"Listen," Jaemin started, bracing himself for an emotional ride. "I don't really know how hard it is because I haven't experienced anything like relationships and heartbreaks, but that doesn't mean I don't know that it hurts like hell."

While walking, Jaemin looked up at the sky, watching as the clouds slowly moved across the orange and blue-painted sky. "Although, no matter what you try to do, nothing will stop nor change, whether it's within your liking or not. Time will still come and go. The sun and the moon will still die every day and every night for the other and their child, the Earth, to live. The stars will still hang around the heavens and watch with utter melancholy as their tragic love story circulated into an endless cycle."

Jaemin looked at Jeno, shining a sincerely sad smile. "Everything will still move on, even if you don't want it to. It's only a matter of time that you should move on along with it."

Silence.

Jaemin stopped in his tracks as soon as Jeno suddenly did. Worried that he said something wrong, he turned to him and approached him.

"H-Hey," Jaemin stuttered, concerned as he scanned the straight face that Jeno was pulling. "Are you alright?"

Jeno opened his mouth in attempt to talk. He wanted to lie like he always did. He wanted to tell him that he was alright.

—but instead, what came out were tears and a soft and shaky "No."

Jaemin frowned, feeling his heart twist at the sight of Jeno holding his head down and silently sobbing.

It wasn't that it was the first time he saw him crying, but everyone is aware that once a usually happy person is sad, then something is badly wrong.

"Hey," Jaemin whispered, not sure what to tell Jeno in order to comfort him. "You've been walking with me to my house for the past few days. I think it's time I return the favor."

Jeno silently nodded as a response.

With that, the two boys walked beside each other under the sunset sky in silence.

This time, though, the silence wasn't as awkward as it was before.

In fact, it was comforting.

Later on, the two boys stopped as they finally arrived at the front of Jeno's house.

"Thanks," Jeno started, breaking the silence as he turned to him.

"Why?" Jaemin asked, sheepishly smiling. "I did nothing."

"You stayed even when I went dramatic," Jeno argued. "You also walked with me to my house. That's always something."

Jaemin simply shrugged as a response, flustered.

"Anyway, it's getting late," Jeno pointed out as he looked at the setting sun. "You should go before the sun comes down completely."

"I know," Jaemin responded, but then exclaimed as he remembered something. "Oh! Before I go—"

"What is it?" Jeno asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Do you think it's a good idea to meet up tomorrow for our Music project?" Jaemin asked, then immediately feeling really flustered with the question. "I mean—"

"Yeah," Jeno cutted off Jaemin with a smile. "It is."

Jaemin's face lit up like a light bulb as he registered Jeno's response, as well as his smile. "Really?! Awesome! At my place?"

"Alright," Jeno agreed. "I'll bring my guitar."

"Awesome," Jaemin repeated, obviously happy with their plan. "See you tomorrow, then."

"Wait."

Jaemin stopped and turned back to Jeno, scrunching his eyebrows together in confusion. "What?"

"You forgot something," Jeno answered, seemingly staying on where he was standing.

Jaemin stared at him, trying to think about what he was talking about until he finally remembered, which caused him to blush a little and chuckle. "Oh, right. I'm sorry."

Jaemin turned back to Jeno and approached him, then leaned in with less hesitation than he held in the days before, planting a soft kiss near Jeno's eye, as if he was trying to kiss his tears away.

As the former pulled away, the latter immediately leaned in to hand over his share, kissing him on the cheek with almost no reluctance.

They looked at each other for a short second before turning to the opposite direction and walking away, biting their lips to fight back the unknown feelings that threatened to show.


	7. day 6

If Jaemin's mother was worried about anything, it was that his son had stayed in his room for hours, which was an usual occurrence.

It was a Saturday, for fuck's sake.

She stood by his bedroom door, hearing fast footsteps pacing from one end of the room to another, accompanied by muffled mumbling. The creaking of the floorboards would stop from time to time, followed by the sound of something being moved.

Is he cleaning his room?

She smiled with amusement. She knew that he never cleans his room unless he was sternly told to do so or he had someone special coming over.

She definitely didn't scold him.

Who's coming?

Jaemin's mother then noticed that the door was slightly open, so she took a peak of the miracle that was happening.

From there, she could see Jaemin with a serious expression on his face as he slowly scanned his room from top to bottom and left to right and considered every single detail in it.

It must be someone more than special.

"Nana?" Jaemin's mom called, pushing the door in.

"Mom!" Jaemin exclaimed, jolting up from where he was standing. "You scared me."

"Sorry," Jaemin's mom apologized, shining a sheepish smile. "What are you doing? I thought you have plans today."

"I do," Jaemin responded, sighing. "Someone is coming over for a project."

"Who?"

"Jeno."

Jaemin's mom stopped in her tracks, surprised.

It was only one of Jaemin's old close friends. Why did he seemed so nervous over how his room looked like for him?

"Oh, I see," Jaemin's mom drawled, nodding. "I'll make sure to catch your attention once he arrives, then."

"Please do," Jaemin pleaded with his hands together as he turned to her. "Thank you so much, Mom."

"You're welcome," Jaemin's mom responded, smiling at his strange action. She turned and walked her way out of his room, closing the door behind her once she had stepped out.

Something must be up between them, and it must be something good.

-

Jaemin sat on his bed, swinging his legs back and forth with utter nervousness mixed with confusion and frustration.

Ever since he woke up that day, his hands itched with so much urge to make sure that everything in his room looked neat enough.

Hours had went by and the itch hasn't left, which was starting to irritate him.

He wasn't always like this when a friend would come over. He would always leave things be because he thought they wouldn't care anyway. This wasn't what that was. What was happening to him?

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind. Maybe he simply wanted his friend to feel comfortable once he comes over and prepare for their project with him.

Yes, that's the case.

—is it?

"Nana!" Jaemin heard his mother call from outside, reeling him back to reality. "Jeno is here!"

Jaemin suddenly stood up from his bed, surprised. As soon as the news synced in, he immediately went for his mirror and made sure he looked alright, fixing his raven black hair with his fingers and flattening the creases on his clothes with his hands, even when both attempts were useless because he was permanently a messy person.

As soon as he heard a knock come from his bedroom door, he ran back to his bed and sat back on it, acting like nothing happened as he said "Come in!"

With that, the creaking of the hinges echoed through the bedroom while the door was slowly swung open, revealing Jeno who was carefully carrying his guitar case.

"Hey," Jaemin greeted Jeno with a small smile.

"Hey," Jeno greeted back without looking at Jaemin as he was too busy admiring his bedroom. "It's been too long since I last came here, huh?"

"Yeah," Jaemin agreed, laughing. He then patted a portion of his bed that was placed next to him. "Sit down so we can start this thing already."

After rolling his eyes at his friend's excitement, Jeno walked over to the bed and sat next to Jaemin, then laid his guitar case on his lap as he asked "What song should we do?"

Jaemin thought for a while, then turned to Jeno. "I don't know. What do you think?"

Jeno shrugged. "I don't know either."

Jaemin pouted, pulling his phone out. "I'll search for one in that case."

Jeno nodded in response.

Jaemin scrolled through the different music applications that he had installed in his phone. "Should we do a love song?"

"No, but I think that's a good idea, since it's for Valentine's Day," Jeno answered, smirking. "I don't want the couples in our school to feel bad."

"I do," Jaemin joked, making Jeno's smirk turn into a small smile of amusement.

Jaemin started saying song titles and asking whether the said song was a good one or not, but as time went by, he became slower and slower because he could see how Jeno's lips drooped further and further down as a song was thrown at him.

"How about I Need U by BTS?" Jaemin asked.

Silence.

That's when he finally figured that something was definitely bothering him.

Locking his phone and laying it down on his bed, Jaemin looked up at Jeno with utter worry. He opened his mouth to ask whether he was alright or not, but then he closed it again as he thought that it was a useless move, since he was going to respond with his usual lie again anyway.

"Jeno," Jaemin called with a voice so soft, as if Jeno was so delicate that if he called him too loud, he would become even more broken than he already was.

"I can't do this, Jaemin," Jeno suddenly said with a voice crack while tears trickled down his cheek.

"You can't do what, Jeno?" Jaemin asked, moving closer to him so that he could comfort him better.

"I can't..." Jeno stuttered, seemingly fighting back a sob. "I can't listen to a song without remembering her, much less sing one. I'm sorry but I can't do this, Jaemin."

Jaemin frowned. "That's not true, Jeno."

Jeno shook his head as a response, making Jaemin's frown etch further into his face. Figuring that they can't start with him in this emotional condition, Jaemin took Jeno's guitar away from him and set it down on his guitar case as he said "We still have a week to work on this, so I think it's a good idea to postpone today's preparation."

Jaemin turned back to Jeno. "How about we watch a movie on my laptop instead? My mom bought a bucket of ice cream."

Jeno looked up at Jaemin, then nodded without a word.

Jaemin nodded back. "Alright, then."

He laid a hand on Jeno's cheek, wiping a stray tear away from his face. After that, he leaned in and laid a soft kiss on his nose, then proceeded to head out of the room with a small smile.

-

Jeno blinked as he stared at the laptop screen, beginning to become bored of the movie that they were watching. It wasn't that he hated the movie. It was that he wasn't in the mood to watch further, which made him feel bad for Jaemin seemed to want to see it really badly.

Speaking of Jaemin...

Jeno realized that there was something slightly heavy laid on his shoulder. He tilted his head to the side to see what it was only to be welcomed by hair being shoved in his face.

One second, his face was filled with confusion.

Another second, his face was filled with embarrassment.

Jaemin was soundly sleeping with his head on Jeno's shoulder.

As the laptop screen went black because of the movie, Jeno saw the reflection of Jaemin's peaceful sleeping face, which made him smile.

After a while, Jeno stopped the movie and shut the laptop down, putting the laptop and the empty bucket of ice cream aside. He then proceeded to make use of all of his power to make Jaemin lie down on the bed without waking him up, which he succeeded in.

Jeno's face hovered above Jaemin's for a while as he observed every beautiful detail of it. With a smile, he thought about how thankful he was to know that he was willing to catch him when he was about to fall.

He wished he knew how to properly pay him back, but then, he brushed the hair that rested on his forehead away and laid a soft kiss on it, thinking that that should do for now.


	8. day 7

Under the strangely gloomy sky was Jeno sitting all alone on a bench, swinging his legs back and forth while staring at his wrist watch with a frown on his face.

His friends planned to have a short hangout together like always, but unlike before, no one had arrived yet, even when it was already around fifteen minutes since their stated call time.

Where were they?

"Jeno!"

His frown faltering and turning into a small but relieved smile, Jeno turned to the direction of the voice that he was too familiar with to forget.

"Hey, Jaemin."

"Sorry for being so late," Jaemin muttered between his heavy panting, sitting beside Jeno on the bench to catch his breath. "I may or may not have woken up late."

"What? How? You fell asleep when we watched that movie," Jeno pointed out, smirking at the sight of Jaemin's ears turning red.

"Oversleeping is a thing," Jaemin argued, rolling his eyes.

"Anyway, where are the others?" He asked, looking around them.

"Actually, I have no idea," Jeno answered, smile faltering as he remembered their current situation. "It's been twenty minutes since the time Mark hyung told us to come here yet you're the only one here."

"Seriously?!" Jaemin responded with a frown. "That's strange. Did you try to text them?"

"Ah, no," Jeno admitted, mentally cursing for not thinking about that before. He took out his phone from his pocket. "I'll do that now."

As he unlocked his phone, he saw the overflowing text messages that came from their friends. Scrolling through them made his face twist into confusion.

"Jeno?" Jaemin called, concern surfacing on his voice.

"They cancelled plans," Jeno muttered in a hushed volume.

He turned to the boy next to him, who seemed to have a hard time trying to sync the news in. Once his mind had finally functioned, his face was plastered by a look mixed with surprise and disbelief.

"All of them?!"

"All of them."

"What the hell do we do now, then?!" Jaemin cursed.

Jeno sighed and shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know."

"I could have stayed and slept more if I knew that this was going to happen," Jaemin muttered, crossing his arms and huffing.

With that, awkward silence started filling the air, slowly suffocating the two. Jaemin was the first to be brought down by it as he suddenly stood up and started looking through their surroundings.

"What are you doing?" Jeno asked Jaemin as he watched him spin around.

"Searching for something to do," Jaemin answered as he stopped spinning, seemingly dizzy. "I figured that I don't want to come back home yet."

Jeno drawled an ah under his breath while nodding, then stood beside Jaemin to start looking through their surroundings as well. Later, he turned back to a certain direction where his eye was caught by something that was in different colors.

"Look." Jeno pointed a finger at that something.

Jaemin had his attention caught and turned to that something, immediately smiling like a child as soon as he saw what it was.

"Playground!" Jaemin exclaimed, then turned back to Jeno. "Let's go!"

Jeno smiled at Jaemin and his sudden change of attitude then nodded. "Let's go."

"Wait," Jaemin suddenly said, taking Jeno's arm to stop him from starting to walk, which made the latter turn back to him with surprise.

"What?" Jeno said.

"I'll race you there."

Jeno blinked, registering the words that came out of Jaemin's mouth.

"Is that a challenge?" Jeno asked afterwards, raising an eyebrow.

Jaemin smirked, shrugging. "Maybe. Maybe not."

Jeno smirked back. "Alright. Winner gets a free cone of ice cream with three scoops. Loser pays. Deal?"

"That sounds like a plan," Jaemin hummed, nodding as if he was thinking about it. "Deal."

Minutes later, the two boys were in their ready-to-run stances, waiting for the count.

"On three?" Jaemin asked.

"On three," Jeno repeated, as if to agree.

"One..."

"Two..."

"Three!"

With that, the two young boys started running as if their life depended on it.

Later, Jaemin stopped in front of the slide of the targeted playground. After a while of catching his breath, he smiled and turned to Jeno to shout "I won---"

\---but his moment of happiness faded away as he saw Jeno sitting down on the rough cemented floor, clutching his knee with his face twisted with pain.

"Jeno!" Jaemin called as he ran to him, voice faltering with worry. "Are you alright? What happened?"

Jeno looked up at Jaemin and shone a sheepish smile before removing his hand from his knee, showing a slightly bleeding bruise.

"I tripped on a small rock," Jeno confessed.

"Ah," Jaemin muttered, heaving a small sigh of relief. He thought something worse, like a fracture or something.

He then frowned. Serious or not, Jeno was still hurt. It was still his fault, right?

"Jaemin?" Jeno called as he observed Jaemin's droopy face.

"I'm sorry," Jaemin blurted out, frowning. "This is my fault."

Jeno's eyes went wide, as if he didn't expect that as a response.

"It's okay," Jeno responded, slightly chuckling. "It's not entirely your fault. I wasn't looking at where I was going."

Jaemin wasn't contented with that, so he reached his hand out as he said "Come on. I'll walk you to my house and treat that."

"Wait, what? You don't have to---"

"I insist."

Jeno stared up at Jaemin, surprised by his sudden change of character. He really expected him to simply laugh at his clumsiness, but that wasn't what was happening.

It made the former feel really flustered, but he did his best to bite back his blush as he accepted the latter's hand, who laid his arm around his shoulder.

"I can still walk, you know," Jeno muttered, embarrassed at the lack of space between them.

"I don't believe you," Jaemin responded in a joking manner. "If we weren't out in public, you would probably complain every millisecond."

"I don't do that," Jeno retorted, the fluttery feeling draining out of his stomach as soon as such words came out of Jaemin's mouth.

'Yes, you do."

"No, I don't."

\--and their argument continued on and on until they reached their destination: Jaemin's house.

Once they stepped in the house, Jaemin took Jeno's arm off his shoulder, which made both boys internally frown as they were against that, then let him sit down on the couch.

"Stay there," Jaemin told Jeno as he was about to walk off to the kitchen. "I'll look for the first aid kit."

"Seriously, though," Jeno said in a loud volume for Jaemin to hear from the other room. "You don't have to do this."

"Yeah, I know," Jaemin responded in the same manner, followed by sounds of rummaging throlugh cabinets and drawers. "but I want to, so whatever. Anyway, can you walk? Try going to the bathroom and wash up your knee."

Jeno stood up from the couch and went to the bathroom as he was told to, puffing his slightly pink-tinted cheeks as he felt the fluttery feelings take over his whole body for the nth time that day.

Later, Jeno came back from the bathroom and Jaemin came back from wherever he was with everything he needed to try and tend Jeno's bruises. Jaemin sat down on the floor, facing Jeno's legs.

"It's to bad that your knee became bruised," He commented as he started preparing. "You could have lived as someone with legs like SNSD's."

"I can't tell if that's a compliment or an insult."

"It's hard to have legs like SNSD's, Jeno."

Jeno was about to respond with a retort when he felt a small stab of pain around his knee, making him slightly wince. Jaemin noticed this and frowned.

"Sorry," He immediately said. "I did it without a warning."

"It's alright."

After a while, Jaemin was carefully placing a small bandage on Jeno's knee. Watching him do so made Jeno smile, because he thought that the way he poked his tongue out a little due to concentration was cuter than the child-like patterns on the bandage.

"Done!" Jaemin announced with a smile, staring at his success.

"Thank you," Jeno responded, about to stand up to see if he could, but then, Jaemin laid his hand on Jeno's other leg.

"I lied," Jaemin admitted. "I'm not yet done, so stay there."

"What?" Jeno blurted out, scrunching his eyebrows with confusion as he switched looks between his healed knee and his friend. "Why? It looks done to me."

"That's because I haven't laid my finishing touch yet."

Jeno raised an eyebrow, which he dropped along with everything else that he had as soon as he saw Jaemin lean in and lay a small kiss on his knee.

"There," Jaemin hummed, smiling again. "Now, I'm done."

Jeno felt the temperature of his ears rise. He shone a sheepish smile, then leaned down and kissed the top of Jaemin's head, taking the other boy by surprise.

"Idiot," Jeno muttered with a small smile, making Jaemin laugh.


	9. day 8

Jaemin walked his way out of his classroom with a hardly hidden expression of excitement. It was already lunch time—one of his three favorite periods in every single school day (the other two being recess and dismissal), not only because it was the time where he gets to fill his craving for food, but also because he gets to fill his craving for conversations with his friends, especially with a certain someone that he had always been getting out of bed for.

His days would usually go in a way where he would come back to his classroom and continue the rest of his day in a happy mood, but apparently except that day, because as soon as he saw the emptiness that occupied the seat in front of his, he knew that he wasn't going to be skipping his way home with a smile that day.

"Where's Jeno?" Jaemin asked his friends, sitting down on his usual seat.

"Well, hello to you, too," Jisung joked.

"Sorry," Jaemin muttered, ears turning into a light shade of red out of embarrassment.

After laughing along with the others, Renjun answered: "He's not here."

"I can see that," Jaemin responded in a duh type of tone. "Where did he go?"

Renjun froze, then relaxed in an ashamed manner as he admitted: "I didn't ask."

"He told me that he was going to stay in school for only half of the day today," Mark butted in with a food-filled mouth, making Donghyuck glare at him and scold him while casually wiping the corner of his mouth.

Jaemin's shoulders slumped along with the corners of his lips.

Jeno left? Without telling him anything about it?

"Hyung?" Chenle called while looking at him with eyes shining with slight worry. "Are you alright?"

Jaemin looked back at him for a while, then forced himself to show him a smile while nodding. "Yeah, I'm alright. I think I just need to go to the comfort room."

Before letting anyone talk any further, he stood up from his seat and slithered his way through the crowds of students in the canteen, then immediately went to the comfort room as soon as he was out.

Once he was there, he stopped and stared at the empty room and heaved a sigh, feeling the burden in his chest. He was unsure of the reason why there was one in the first place, but he was too disappointed with his situation with Jeno to think about it.

Why was he even upset about it in the first place, though?

Jaemin shrugged the question off his shoulders out confusion and frustration over the fact that he has absolutely no answer to it.

He walked towards the sink and turned the faucet on, then proceeded to put his hands underneath where the water spilled down. He watched as it ran through his fingers like transparent ribbons.

In the middle of washing his hands, Jaemin jumped in place as the loud sound of a flushing toilet echoed through the comfort room.

He closed the faucet and wiped his hands on his pants as excuse to keep his eyes from landing on whoever was in the stall.

"Oh, Jaemin!"

Nevermind.

Jaemin looked up at the mirror and saw Jeno walking out of the said stall, carrying his bag on his shoulder.

"Oh, Jeno," Jaemin responded, turning to him.

They shone each other a smile that seemed to secretly say: What a coincidence. You were on my mind a moment ago.

"I heard about your half day stay in school," Jaemin said, breaking the silence.

"I didn't tell you that yet, did I?" Jeno responded, knitting his eyebrows together in confusion. "Who told you that?"

"Mark hyung did."

"Oh."

"What's up?" Jaemin asked, curious about what was the reason behind Jeno's sudden departure.

"My family and I are going somewhere," Jeno answered as he approached the sink next to Jaemin. "Some sort of outing, I think."

"On a school day?"

"I did not have any say in this, but honestly, I'm not complaining, because it means I won't have to go through the terror of our History teacher."

Jaemin and Jeno laughed together at the latter's last statement.

Once the laughter had died down, Jaemin asked another question. "How long will you be out?"

Jaemin looked at Jeno, half hoping he wouldn't say an answer he didn't want him to say, but simply seeing the latter's smile falter slightly made him immediately take down his hopes.

"A day and a half," Jeno answered.

Jaemin bit his lip, fighting back a frown.

That's too long.

"You're going to miss out on a lot of lessons," Jaemin said, suddenly trying to change his mind about leaving.

"I already asked Renjun to take down notes for me," Jeno responded.

"We won't be able to work on our project."

"We already have a song, so I'll do my best to make the arrangement while I'm gone."

Jaemin pressed his lips together, not only because he was running out of excuses, but also because he was trying to keep another response from spilling out of his mouth.

You won't be able to kiss me.

He didn't say it, though.

He didn't dare to.

Jaemin must have been so visibly silent and sad that Jeno started to emit a small laugh, which made the former both slightly more miserable.

"It's only for a day and a half, silly," Jeno said, smiling.

"Still, though." Jaemin heaved a heavy sigh.

Jeno smiled, then suddenly approached him to the point where there was almost no space between the two.

Jaemin closed his eyes, already expecting the kiss on his forehead but still feeling fluttery about it.

"I'll be back soon," He heard him whisper. "Don't miss me too much, okay?"

Jaemin rolled his eyes, but secretly smiling. "Who said I was?"

"Whatever you say." Jeno laughed.

Jaemin looked up at him, then returned the favor by kissing his nose.

"Stay safe," He told him. "Text me as soon as you arrived to your destination and your house."

"Okay, Mom."

Jaemin suddenly slapped Jeno's arm, breaking the moment. "Leave, you fucking dick."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for uploading this so late!!  
> thank you for reading!!


	10. night 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm so so sorry for the late update! i'm new to ao3 so i had troubles with trying to figure out how it works... thanks to someone, i found out about the rich text option... ah, i'm such a noob... anyway, enjoy!!

Inside the Na Residences under the dark and diamond-littered sky was Jaemin was on his bed, lying down on his stomach while silently staring at the blue blinking cursor on the empty message box with a frown etched on his face.

He had been waiting for messages from a certain someone to come in his inbox since the afternoon before, but none were coming, making him worry. He tried thinking that this certain someone was already tired from his long trip with his family, but that didn't seem to suffice and set his nervous heart to calm down.

As he figured that not minding his rapid heartbeat was a bad idea, Jaemin picked up his phone and started pressing on the keyboard buttons.

nono «  
you haven't messaged me since this afternoon «  
when you said you will «  
are you on your way? «  
are you home? «  
are you resting? «  
where are you??? «  
at least tell me something :( «

Heaving a sigh, Jaemin decided to think that he was already asleep, but as soon as he was about to drop his phone, he felt it vibrate in his hand.

» omg omg omg  
» i'm so so so sorry minmin ><  
» i actually arrived the house an hour ago  
» but i was a preparing for something so i became a bit busy  
» i'm done now, though ^^

Jaemin felt his heart beat loud and hard in his chest. Biting back a smile, Jaemin laid his chin down on the mattress then tapped on the keys, writing a text as a reply to Jeno.

o «  
ok ok «  
understandable «  
now go and get some sleep «

» noooo

why not? «

» because i can't sleep  
» not without that...  
» small something

small something? «  
what small something? «  
what are you talking about? «  
wait «  
oh «  
the dare «

» ding ding ding

you came home from an approximately two day long trip only an hour ago «  
and you had done something from then to now «  
you haven't slept «  
not even for a single second «  
we can do it tomorrow «  
when we meet up for the music project «

» but

but? «

» i don't want to

lee jeno, i swear to all of the jams that you don't have, «

» besides  
» how am i supposed to sleep  
» when i'm outside your window right now?

wait «  
WHAT?! «

Jaemin got out of his bed, rushing towards his bedroom window. Pulling the curtains aside and looking through the window, he spotted a familiar figure standing somewhere below him.

He then immediately closed the curtains and turned away, feeling his face slowly gain high temperature.

Out of all the times he could come to his house, why now, when it was late at night, when it was dim and silent, when his parents were fast asleep in the bedroom next to his, and when he was a complete disaster?!

Jaemin heaved a heavy sigh and facepalmed as he tried to think of his choices and their consequences.

If he made him stay, he might wake up his parents.

If he made him go, his efforts of travelling would be wasted because he lived almost thirty minutes away.

What should he do?

 _Whatever_ , he thought as he turned back to the window.

Once he was able to open the window, he leaned over and started making soft sounds to catch the attention of the boy below him.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Jaemin hissed in a hushed manner as Jeno finally faced him.

"Well, hello to you, too," Jeno responded with a voice that was a little faint due to the distance between them.

"Asshole," Jaemin cursed, then beckoned him over. "Go to the back door because I'll open that one for you. My parents are sleeping in the other room, so you better be quiet!"

Before letting the boy talk back, Jaemin closed the window, then turned away to head out of his bedroom. As soon as he opened his door, he took a peek of the dark area, searching for any signs of his parents. Once he thought that the coast was clear, he stepped out and started making his way to the back door in a slow tiptoe manner due of how the floorboards creak under the slightest step.

When he made it to the back door, he immediately yet quietly unlocked it and opened it, then stepped aside to let a certain someone step in.

"Hey," Jeno whispered while watching Jaemin close the door.

Jaemin laid a finger on his lips and made a soft hushing sound, then beckoned Jeno to walk with him while mouthing _Follow me_. Jeno nodded, then took Jaemin's hand as they started moving out.

Right when they were nearing Jaemin's bedroom, a soft creaking sound echoed through the area, breaking the silence.

Jaemin turned to Jeno, who was vigorously shaking his head while softly saying "That wasn't me."

They both turned to the door of the other bedroom, which was slowly opening, letting the light coming from the inside of the room spill out.

Cursing under his breath, Jaemin held Jeno's hand tighter then pulled him along with him as they swiftly ran to his bedroom and silently shut the door.

"Hide under my bed," Jaemin ordered Jeno, who looked at him with shock.

"What?!"

"Go!"

As Jeno did what he was told to do, Jaemin sat down on the bed, picked up his phone, then made himself look like he had been staring at something for the past hour.

Later, Jaemin's bedroom door slowly swung open, revealing a man who almost looked exactly like him, except bigger and older.

"Nana?" The man said in a soft and sleepy tone. "Why are you still awake?"

"Hm?" Jaemin looked up from his phone, trying to calm down and come up with a lie. "Oh. Hey, Dad. I'm reading something. I'll sleep as soon as I finish it."

His father fell silent for a while, like he was trying to think whether he should believe in Jaemin's excuse or not. Later, he hummed in response. "Don't stay up too late."

"I won't."

With that, the door was closed once again, leaving Jaemin alone.

Well, not really.

"Are you alright down there?" Jaemin suddenly asked in a low volume as he locked his phone and laid it back down on his bed.

"Yeah," Jeno answered as he crawled his way out of the bed. "Do you think your mom or your dad will come back?"

As if on cue, the two boys heard a door being closed.

"No," Jaemin answered.

"Good. I can't afford to stay under there, especially when you're sitting on it."

Jaemin rolled his eyes as Jeno laughed at his last statement while sitting down on the bed. He looked at the the latter, who looked back at him. Why was he looking back at him? Was he looking back at him with the same intent like he was? He didn't know. He didn't care, either. He never gave it a true thought, but if he could, he would sacrifice all of the stars in the sky simply to have that pair of eyes all for him and him only.

Besides, as much as the diamonds littered across the dark blue blanket were nice to look at, he didn't need them, because he already has the brightest and most beautiful star right beside him.

"What are you looking at?" Jeno asked under his breath, as if he was afraid to break the deafening silence that accompanied the cold atmosphere around them.

"Nothing," Jaemin said.

Everything, he thought.

"Don't lie."

"Do you want me to tell the truth, then?"

"Do you think I would say that if I don't?"

"Fine, I was looking at you."

"Why? Is it because I'm beautiful?"

"No. It is because you're ugly."

In a blink of an eye, Jeno immediately stood on the bed and looked down at Jaemin with a small hint of a smirk on his lips. "Take that back."

Jaemin looked up at Jeno, intrigued with what was going to happen. "Never."

With that, the latter rolled up the sleeves of the jacket that he had been wearing, making all of the colors in the former's body drain out.

Bad idea.

"Lee Jeno," Jaemin said with a shaky voice as he tried to back away from Jeno, who was slowly nearing him. "Get away from me, Lee Jeno."

"You asked for it," Jeno said with a fully visible smirk, then suddenly pounced on Jaemin, poking his fingers on every single tickle spot that he knew he had, turning Jaemin into a laughing mess who was trying to giggle in a low volume.

"Stop!" Jaemin exclaimed between his laughter.

After a while, the friendly fight between the two finally settled down, leaving them panting. Suddenly, Jeno dropped down onto Jaemin, taking the boy beneath him aback.

"Get off of me," Jaemin managed to mutter as he struggled to catch his breath.

"No," Jeno mumbled, nuzzling his face into the crook of Jaemin's neck.

"Lee Jeno," Jaemin whined while trying to hide his flustered feelings due to the non-existing space between them. "Get off of me."

"Na Jaemin," Jeno whispered softly but sternly. "No."

Jaemin groaned, while Jeno lifted his head and looked at Jaemin with a small smile.

"You're heavy," Jaemin complained as he looked away to avoid Jeno's gaze.

"You're cute," Jeno responded.

Wanting to argue against that last statement, Jaemin turned his head back to Jeno, then discovered that he did it in the worst timing ever, because apparently, Jeno was leaning in to lay a kiss on his cheek, but because Jaemin moved his head, Jeno laid a kiss on the corner of his lips instead.

Jeno and Jaemin looked at each other's eyes, shocked. As soon as this strange action registered in both the two boys' minds, they sat up and started rambling in chorus.

"I'm so so sorry, Jaemin!" Jeno started as his face started mimicking the shade of a healthy red rose. "I didn't mean to— I didn't think that—"

"It's okay! It's okay, Jeno!" Jaemin responded in a stuttering manner, shaking his head and waving his hands as a gesture of trying to dismiss the issue. "It's fine! It's my fault, anyway! I didn't know that you were going to—"

Once they realized that they were talking together like a pair of idiots, they stopped, stared at each other, then started laughing. It was nervous giggling at first, but it became comfortable chuckling.

They didn't want it to die down, because to each other, their laughter was like their favorite song; Every time a note of it enters their ears, they feel like a hundred days were added onto their lifespan.

Sadly, it did.

"It's already eleven o nine in the evening," Jeno pointed out as he looked at his phone.

"You need to go home," Jaemin advised, although he was completely against it.

"I know." Jeno sighed, as if he was thinking of the same.

"I'll walk with you out."

"It's alright. I can walk my way out myself."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

Jaemin bit his lip as a small voice—his voice—softly spoke at the back of his mind.

I still want to stay with you, though.

"Alright."

Jaemin and Jeno then got out of the bed and headed to the bedroom door. As soon as he had his fingers wrapped around the door knob, Jeno suddenly turned back to Jaemin.

"Wait," He whispered.

"What?" Jaemin whispered back, looking at Jeno with worry.

"It's eleven eleven."

Jaemin relaxed his formerly tensed body and rolled his eyes, relieved that it wasn't something really serious.

Who was he kidding, though? When you were with The Lee Jeno, everything was serious, like his seriously beautiful face when he smiles.

"What do you wish for?" Jeno asked Jaemin with a voice coated with softness and sweetness as he looked at him with a smile brighter than the stars shining in his small eyes.

Jaemin looked at Jeno.

_I wish for your smile to stay forever, even if the reason behind your smile isn't me._

_I wish for you to stay forever, even if the reason behind your stay isn't me._

_I wish and will wish for you forever, even if you don't wish for me back._

_...and I wish that I could finally figure out what I'm feeling for you, and what you're feeling for me, too._

"Nothing in particular. How about you?"

Jeno stared at Jaemin, suddenly silent, as if he was thinking with endless intent. He then smiled again as he said responded: "Nothing in particular as well."

Jeno was about to turn back to the door and was about to walk out of the room once he opened it, but then, Jaemin laid his hand on Jeno's shoulder and turned him back to him, then leaning in to lay a short but sweet kiss on the same spot where Jeno did the same for Jaemin.

Jaemin leaned away and looked at Jeno, who was completely stunned.

"Good night," Jaemin mumbled in a rushed manner.

"Good night," Jeno stuttered, then shut the door.

Once the door was completely closed, Jaemin rushed to his bed and rolled onto it, then buried his tomato-like face into a pillow.

What a night.

 


	11. day 10

When he woke up, Jeno was expecting to see the usual _I woke up like shit_ side of him (that was complete with the bird's nest-like bed hair, half-asleep half-awake eyes, and the _fuck off or I'll fuck you_ _up_ face) on the mirror, but as he stepped in his bathroom and saw his reflection, he almost screamed at the sight of a completely different person.

He blinked and realized that it was still him. He almost laughed at himself for being so stupid until he noticed that he already was laughing. Forcing his laughter to die down, he stared at himself through the mirror with a raised eyebrow.

He looked at the clock that was on the table beside his bed, then back at the mirror. It was five minutes before five in the morning. Why was he already awake at such an early time? Why as he smiling? Why was he feeling so happy?

Suddenly, a surge of memories occured in Jeno's mind, reminding him of the events from last night; the night when he snuck out of his house and into Jaemin's at such a late time; the night when they were almost caught together; the night they had a tickle fight that lasted until they were tired; the night when he almost—

He emitted a small squeak and vigorously shook his head, blushing while forcing himself to drown that short but sweet moment away with soft mental scolding directed to himself.

 _Forget about it_ , he thought as he started roaming around his room and preparing for school. _Forget about it fo_ _r now_ _. Think about it later._

_Just for now._

Since that morning, Jeno had been walking around wherever he went in small skips with the same smile on his face, as if he was a child who was wearing a pair of those type of shoes that shine every time he takes a step.

His huge change of mood surprised not only him, but also everyone around him; his parents, his teachers, his classmates, his schoolmates, and most especially his friends.

"Aren't you a fluffy ball of smiles and sunshine today?" Renjun commented with a smirk, sitting on the seat next to Jeno's seat. "What happened in your trip that turned your mood up to the highest volume?"

"Can't I simply be really happy for no reason, 'Jun?" Jeno retorted, rolling his eyes but not removing his smile from his face.

"Not when you're wearing your two thousand-watt smile out of the sudden, 'No. Now, sit your small ass down on your seat and tell me the tea."

Jeno looked at Renjun, then followed his friend's command, slowly growing unsure whether he was against the action or not, because metaphorically, a strange feeling grew bigger and bigger inside his stomach each and every single time a certain name rolled off his tongue.

Of course, he remembered to leave out a certain part of the story that he was telling, thinking that it was going to help him avoid from thinking about it.

Unfortunately, it went against his will. Once it came into his mind, his lips stopped from moving, his mind stopped from working, his heart started racing, catching him absentminded.

"Jeno? Lee Jeno? Are you still there?"

_Boom._

Jeno and Renjun, along with their other classmates, jumped in wherever they stood or sat at the loud sound of thunder, followed by a fast flicker of lightning.

"Whoa," Jeno muttered, staring at the dark sky out through the slightly dirty classroom window. "Is there a storm heading for the country?"

"Don't tell me that you so happy that you didn't even decide to watch the news this morning," Renjun joked, laughing. "Yeah, there is. They say that it's a pretty big one, so I was sort of surprised that they haven't suspended the classes yet."

"Will they, though?"

"Hopefully."

Jeno slowly nodded, as if to agree to Renjun's statement. He figured that his mind was starting to slowly become too occupied, which was always a bad thing when you're in school. When you're in a state like that, a class suspension would definitely be nice.

Although, as he continued to stare out through the window, Jeno frowned, suddenly feeling another strange feeling slowly growing in his stomach, except that unlike the first one, this was more of negative.

Somehow, he felt as if something was wrong. He simply couldn't put his finger on what it was.

-

Recess break came. Sadly, classes were still not suspended, but there were rumors that they will be soon. Students continued hoping for it to push through as they ate their snacks and talked to their friends.

By the looks of it, Na Jaemin was one of them, except he was eating nor talking.

When he took his usual seat in his crew's usual table, the very first thing that Jeno noticed was how odd Jaemin looked; his hair was sticking out in different directions, his eyes were looking like they never closed for a year or two, his lips were drying out and probably bleeding from all of the biting that he had been doing to it, his skin was turning paler than the whitest pile of snow.

Jeno looked at the others, who were either looking at Jaemin or at Jeno. The latter headed a small nod towards the former, as if asking his friends what was with him.

They shrugged and shook their heads, frowning.

 _I_ _asked_ , Donghyuck mouthed. _He didn't answer._

"I'm alright," Jaemin suddenly said out loud, as if he detected that they were talking about him. He looked up at them and shone a smile that almost fooled them.

Almost.

Jeno wanted to talk to Jaemin, but as soon as he opened his mouth to do so, thunder echoed through the canteen, making everyone in the area erupt into different reactions.

When the ruckus settled down, Jeno turned back to Jaemin and saw that he was shaking. It was small enough for other people to not notice, but not small enough for them.

"Jaemin—"

"Attention, attention," A loud voice coming from the speakers echoed through the canteen, silencing the students in the area. "This is an announcement from the school officials. Classes in all levels are suspended due to the upcoming storm that is expected to hit the country this afternoon. You may now use your mobile cellphones to contact your fetchers. Thank you for your attention. Stay safe."

In the middle of the crowd of cheering students was a frowning Jeno who was watching a sighing Jaemin as he stood up and walked away from his friends.

Jeno stood up as well, but once he did, he had already lost sight of the boy he had been looking for. Scratching his head out of worry and frustration, he turned around and followed his friends and classmates to their classroom.

-

"They really cancelled classes," Chenle said in a cheering tone while skipping with Jisung and Renjun across the hallway. "I'm happy that they really cancelled classes, because I can sleep for the whole day today."

While the six boys laughed at Chenle's made up song, Jeno simply breathed out a short chuckle, then went back to becoming solent.

Mark noticed this and slowed down his walking pace so that Jeno could catch up with him.

"What's with the long face?" Mark asked Jeno, reeling the latter out of his sea of thoughts. "You were so happy when you came to school. I thought that suspension of classes were supposed to make you happier."

"It's not that," Jeno answered. "It's—"

"Wait," Donghyuck suddenly said, stopping from his tracks. "Where's Jaemin?"

Jeno shifted his gaze from Mark to Donghyuck, seemingly annoyed. "He left us in the canteen after the announcement was made. Don't tell me you only noticed it now."

"That must be why it's suddenly so silent," Jisung commented with a frown. "Where is he?"

 _I wish I knew_ , Jeno thought. _I really wish I did._

As if on cue, thunder echoed through the school building for the nth time that say. When that happened, the group was passing by the boys' restroom, where Jeno suddenly stopped by and turned to, because he swore he heard a small scream inside there.

"Jeno?" Renjun called, walking back to him as soon as he noticed that he stopped walking.

"Someone's inside," Jeno mumbled, wrapping his fingers around the strap of his backpack, then stepping inside the restroom.

The rest of the boys looked among each other with confusion and worry shining in their eyes, then simply followed him inside.

"Hyung," Chenle muttered as he silently ran up to Jeno. "Not to ruin your detective mode moment or anything, but this is the boys' restroom. Isn't it a bit obvious that someone would definitely be here?"

"I know that," Jeno rolled his eyes. "but there's something more to it. Someone's inside, crying. Can't you hear it?"

The whole crew went silent, intently listening to their sticky and icky surroundings.

"I can't hear anything," Donghyuck whispered.

Cue the loud thunder, as well as a soft squeak—no, a soft sob.

"Holy sh—"

Jeno immediately turned to a targeted stall and walked his way there, then started knocking.

"Jaemin?" Jeno called, his knocking getting faster and louder. "Jaemin! Open this stall right now!"

"Jeno!" Mark scolded, walking to Jeno and trying to stop him. "We don't know if that's him yet!"

Ignoring Mark and the others, Jeno looked down at the small circle that indicated whether the stall was vacant or occupied. Upon seeing it, he stuffed his hand in his pocket, then took out a coin. He slipped it in the slot and turned it, thanking himself for learning how to pick the locks.

"Jeno, what the hell are you—"

Jeno pushed the door of the stall without any hesitation, revealing Jaemin, who was sitting on the toilet seat, curled up like a ball, with hands over his ears and tears on his cheeks.

The rest of the crew fell silent, surprised by what they discovered.

"Jaemin?" Jeno softly said, utterly shocked and secretly pained by the sight before him.

"Why did you—" Jaemin started, but stopped as his raspy voice suddenly cracked against his will, revealing to the others that he was really crying.

Cue the thunder once again.

As everyone was taken aback by the sound, Jeno was taken aback by how Jaemin suddenly curled up into a smaller ball and started shaking again at the loud sound.

Jeno stood there, stunned as if he was punched real hard right in the face by something called realization.

The thunder had been booming since that morning. Jaemin had been seemingly sick in the same time.

Jaemin was scared of the storm, and it took hours for stupid Jeno to realize.

Mark must have realized the same thing, because he immediately turned to Donghyuck and the others and started ordering them. "I think it's best that we leave Jeno and Jaemin alone right now. Donghyuck, call Jaemin's parents and tell them to fetch their son as soon as possible."

As soon as the others left the two alone, Jeno stared down at the sniffling Jaemin, awkwardly watching him wipe his tears away.

He wanted to wipe those tears instead.

"Why did you look for me?" Jaemin asked out of nowhere with his soft and shaky, breaking the silence in the stuffy atmosphere. "You should have made your way home instead. The storm is becoming worse by the minute."

"I would have, but it wouldn't be the same without you," Jeno answered with a small smile, halfly joking and halfly...not. "Besides, I thought you were sick or something, so when you left us in the cafeteria, I was worried that you were going to pass out in the middle of walking."

_I didn't want you to be alone, and I didn't want to be alone, either. I looked for you because I want us to_ _walk_ _together._

Jaemin opened his mouth to say something, but then, the thunder came in for the nth time that day, which led to the boy close it back before he could emit another weak sound.

Frowning, Jeno walked closer to him and reached his hands out to him. He crouched down, then used one hand to hold the hand that he used to cover his ear and another hand to cup his cheek, making him look at him.

"Did you lie to us and hide from us because you didn't want us to know about how you're scared of the storm?" Jeno asked in a soft voice, as if Jaemin was so fragile that he could break at the slightest raise of volume.

Jeno knew simply by looking through his glossy eyes that Jaemin was hesitating.

"Jaemin?"

"Yes," Jaemin confessed, obviously choking back a sob. "I was scared that you were going to make fun of me for being scared of something like a storm. Only children act like that, right? That's what they tell me. That's what they all always tell me."

Jeno felt his heart earn a slight damage by the seams from what he discovered. Jaemin had been taken down because of his fear, which was definitely not a thing that should be done by people.

As Jaemin started softly sniffling and crying, Jeno slowly wrapped his arms around him, pulling him closer to him and cradling him in attempt to calm him down.

"It's okay," Jeno whispered, looking at Jaemin. "It's okay to be scared now, because I'm here now. They can't push you around anymore. I'll keep you away from everything that will hurt you."

He shone a sincere smile, then leaned in, softly placing his lips on the crying boy's cheek, as if to kiss his tears away like how he did to him before.

Jaemin looked back at him, eyes gleaming with glee hidden in the tears he had shed a few minutes ago. He shifted his sitting position on the closed toilet, making himself taller to reach up and place a kiss on the tip of Jeno's nose.

"Come on. Let's go home."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope it's not obvious that this is rushed  
> i mean i finished this at 2:40 am on a school night (day?) hahahaha


	12. day 11

Slowly sitting on his bed, Jaemin turned up the volume of his cellphone and set it down beside him. As the music started to spread across the atmosphere of his small and silent bedroom, he looked up and through his water-stained window, noticing how the monochromatic-colored clouds were letting their sorrow out in the form of raindrops and the crackling sounds of thunder, which was overlapped by the calming chords and vocals being produced by the speakers of his phone, much to his relief.

The typhoon was becoming weaker and weaker by the hour, but the school officials decided that it was best for the students, the teachers, and everyone else in the facilities to stay in their homes, in case it suddenly became stronger. Jaemin was more than thankful for this. He desperately didn't want what happened the day before then to happen again.

Out of the blue, the topic came into his mind, refreshing his mind with memories that he wished he didn't have to remember; when the roars of the storm shook him from head to toe and haunted him, when he felt as if his soul was on the verge of crawling its way out of his skin, when his screams had been stuck in his throat for so long that they were compressed into warm salty tears that stung his eyes as they came out of it.

But then, other occurrences from that day flooded his mind and took away those tormenting monents; occurrences that involved concerned looks, worriedly voiced questions, and the like, as well as the most beautiful memory Jaemin had ever bore in his brain; the actual existence and presence of Lee Jeno beside him.

After the whole sappy comfort session that they had in the toilets, Jaemin and Jeno headed together to the car of Jaemin's mom, who came to the school as soon as possible after being called by Donghyuck under Mark's command. The ride to Jaemin's house was a bit uncomfortable due to utter embarrassment towards the thought of Jeno finding out about his fear and watching him as he become an emotional mess about it, but the things that happened afterwards made up for it. They stayed in Jaemin's bedroom and had a short meeting about the project that they were doing together. Afterwards, they spent the rest of the day listening, singing, and even dancing to songs that played on their shuffled playlists while eating small snacks and wearing pajamas like actual children, then eventually fell asleep out of exhaustion. It was nice, because Jaemin fell asleep and woke up with a smile on his face instead of a frown out of fear of the storm that was supposed to welcome him through the window.

Jaemin chuckled under his breath out of nowhere, shaking his head. How strange their "friendship" was.

Suddenly, the song seemed to become soft for a second, then went back to its original volume. Jaemin looked at his cellphone with a raised eyebrow, thinking that it must have received a notification. He picked it up and checked the notifications center, finding out that he had messages.

» good news!!!

did u find ur jams? «

» what no

o good «  
it would have been the end of the world if u did «

» honestly how dare u

hehe «   
what is it? «

» i finished the arrangement!

SERIOUSLY «

» YEAH

omg omg omg «  
YES «   
i wanna hear it kfnfksks «

» u will !!

how ?? «

"Jaemin!" Jaemin heard his mother from downstairs. "Jeno is here!"

As if on cue, his door knob clicked, signaling that someone was turning it. The door suddenly opened, revealing Lee Jeno with his cellphone in his hand and the strap of his guitar case in another.

"Can you send me a text or give me some kind of sign before you come here?" Jaemin told Jeno off. "Seriously, I could have looked like a mess if you suddenly come in like that. Worse, naked."

"I wouldn't mind," Jeno answered in a joking manner as he walked in and put his case down.

Jaemin gawked, then rolled his eyes in disgust, covering up how flustered that comment made him.

"Whatever," he said to add up to the facade. "Anyway, about the arrangement."

"I know," Jeno hummed as he removed his shoes, set them by the bed, then hopped on the bed like an excited child before taking his guitar case and unzipping it. Jaemin watched as Jeno hurriedly pushed the empty guitar case off the bed and set the guitar in his lap.

"You look happy today," Jaemin pointed out, laughing. Jeno looked up at him, then laughed along, making his eyes disappear.

"Just excited," Jeno responded.

"Yeah, I can see that. Now, let me see what you did."

Following his command, Jeno prepared himself, checking everything like if his guitar was tuned, if he was using the right fingers, and the like.

Jaemin smiled. When Jeno was focused, he knits his eyebrows together and he presses his lips into a thin line. It was cute, and somehow attractive, too.

Maybe he should give him something to be focused on every day.

As soon as the strings were strummed, Jaemin intently listened to the beautiful music that filled up the dreading silence in his room, immediately knowing that it was an amazing arrangement and falling in love with it badly.

Jaemin looked up from the guitar to the guitarist, in awe. He did this. He knew he did this, and he was amazed by it. He shouldn't be surprised, knowing Jeno, who was really talented boy, but he was.

Once the song was done, Jaemin couldn't help but smile and clap. Jeno looked at him with surprise, but then he smiled and played along by bowing and saying thank you.

"That was amazing," Jaemin said, obviously having a situation with loss of words. "Really, it was. How did you manage to do that?"

Jeno rubbed the back of his neck, flustered. "I don't know. I was inspired, I guess."

Before letting Jaemin speak, Jeno kept talking. "Anyway, now that you heard the arrangement, I want to hear you singing along with it. Sounds good?"

Jaemin's body tensed. He blushed, embarrassed as the topic of him singing.

Ah, but what else could he do? He signed up for this—well, not literally. Jeno did that—so what's the point of backing out?

After a moment of being silent while considering his choices (which were only one: sing), Jaemin heaved a sigh and nodded. "Fine."

Jeno's lips curved into a smile, shining with utter excitement.

"Alright. Get ready."

With that, Jeno started strumming with more ease than the first time. Only half of focus was on his guitar, because he had waited to hear him sing for so long. His voice was really sweet-sounding when he talks. What more when he sings?

Meanwhile, Jaemin was looking down, shyly avoiding Jeno's gaze. Sure, he had been singing anytime every day, but all those times were times where he was fooling around. He wasn't sure what he would sound like when he had to do it seriously.

Well, whatever.

As the intro of the song was coming to an end, Jaemin inhaled and exhaled, as if preparing himself for the task.

Jeno felt like doing the same out of anticipation, which seemed silly, so he didn't do it, but when the singing started, he felt as if he should have.

It was as if the guitar background music was tea, and Jaemin's voice was honey. Jeno felt like he was drinking the best tea ever.

His face—Goodness, his face. He looked like an angel singing his heart out. Jeno would have thought so if he just met him.

He was so into Jaemin's singing that he almost forgot to change chords. Jaemin noticed this, causing him to laugh in between singing.

Finally, the song ended. Silence came in as the two boys looked at each other with smiles on their faces.

"That was amazing," Jeno said, intentionally repeating Jaemin's words from earlier.

Jaemin blushed, but rolled his eyes to cover it up. "Whatever. You were better."

"Excuse me?" Jeno said, raising an eyebrow as he set his guitar aside. "You were definitely better."

Jaemin leaned into Jeno's face in a competitive manner. "Are you challenging me to a compliment showdown?"

"What if I said yes?"

Out of nowhere, Jaemin tackled Jeno, tossing him onto the bed and then getting on top of him, almost sitting on his stomach. He laid his hands on Jeno's cheeks and squished them, leaning in his face.

"You're the best at singing, rapping, dancing, playing guitar, looking good," Jaemin said all at once, causing him to run out of breath. After catching it again, he continued: "as well as existing, and I—"

Jaemin caught himself and closed his mouth before he could say anything else. Playing it cool, he simply said: "I can't believe I'm friends with a perfect asshole like you."

As if the sudden shower of compliments after the physical attack wasn't enough to make Jeno flustered, Jaemin placed a kiss on his nose, then looked down at him and grinned.

Jeno looked up at him, stunned at the series of actions that Jaemin just did. He felt the temperature of his face rise, but he laughed it off.

He planted his hands on the bed and lifted himself up, forcing Jaemin to get off him. He looked at Jaemin, then leaned in, placing a kiss on his forehead.

"You're a perfect asshole to me, too," he simply said.

They looked at each other, then started laughing, even when they didn't know why.

Perhaps they were just purely happy?

Perhaps.

 


	13. day 12

~~~~

Carrying a carefree smile with him, Jaemin skipped his way to school. After a day and a half, the storm had left their part of the country, leaving only moderate to light rains and gloomy skies, but that wasn’t enough to bring the boy’s bright mood down.

 

After his meeting with someone the day before then, he felt as if he was flying at the highest point of his life. It was strange; The two had know each other for so long, but that was the only time when he felt truly happy with him. Truth be told, that was the only time when he felt truly happy for his whole life. 

 

Was it because they weren’t as close as they were now before, or was it something else?

 

Walking in silence as he thought about this, Jaemin passed by the school playground on his way to his classroom, where he heard hushed voices, which caught his attention. He stopped on his tracks, turned to the playground, and spotted a pair of backpacks placed somewhere beside the slide. He recognized the first one even from afar, while he was not so sure about the second one. 

 

With a confused look on his face, he took his phone out of his pocket and checked the time.

 

_ Classes are about to start. What is he doing there at this time? _

 

A few moments later, he found himself hesitatingly approaching the playground while contemplating whether what he was doing was a good idea or not.

 

“Please listen to me, Jeno.”

 

Jaemin stopped. Once he registered the familiarity of the voice that he heard, he hid behind the slide, then took a peek of what was happening on the other side of it.

 

“I know what I did was dumb,” said a girl—Jeno’s ex-girlfriend—while fidgeting with her fingers. “When I found out that I had hurt you really badly, I felt like I had hurt myself really badly, too.”

 

Jaemin froze in the spot where he was standing, realizing whose conversation he was eavesdropping. He immediately felt guilt fill his stomach for doing so, but for some reason, it was as if his feet had sunken in the ground, because he couldn’t move away.

 

“Jeno, I’m so sorry for breaking up with you. I was dumb. I didn’t see how important you were to me until now, so… Give me another chance. Let’s be together again.”

 

With that, Jaemin felt as if a strong force shoved him away, leaving a lot of pain lingering on his chest. Turning around, he hastily walked away from the area.

 

With every step away from the playground came a question in his mind, clouding it until he felt as if he was going to be sick.

 

_ Give me another chance. Let’s be together again. _

 

_ What will he say? _

 

_ What will he do? _

 

_ What will happen to them? _

 

_ What will happen to us? _

  
  
  
  
  


_ Was there ever an us? _

 

-

 

For the rest of the day, Jaemin was on the edge of losing control over himself. He failed a seatwork in Mathematics class, tripped and wounded himself in PE class, kept bumping into things and people, all because his mind was too occupied, much to his resentment.

 

A part of him had known that he was overthinking and overreacting, but all of his other parts had already been convinced that something was wrong.

 

Despite his absentmindedness, he still managed to be aware of you-know-who, as well as the others. He skipped both recess break and lunch break, and thought that he was smart by staying in a bathroom stall and silently scrolling through social media to keep him away from thinking about things, but truth be told, not even the slightest did it work. 

 

His heart felt like chewing gum, because he felt like it was being chewed and blown up into a bubble so big that people would think that it was going to pop when it wouldn’t. It was just getting bigger and bigger because of the pain that was filling it up.

 

When he got out of the stall to go back to his classroom, things got a lot more worse for Jaemin, because out of the stall stood Renjun and Chenle talking in their native tongue with what seemed like worry on their faces as they washed their hands in the sink.

 

Shocked and scared, Jaemin turned away and tried to walk past the two in a tip toe manner, but as soon as he heard the faucet turn off, he knew that he was screwed.

 

“Jaemin?”

 

Crap.

 

“Hyung! There you are!” Jaemin turned around and saw Chenle approaching him as he cheered.

 

“Yeah,” He responded, forcing out a laugh. “Here I am.”

 

With that, Renjun and Chenle started bombarding Jaemin with so many questions that Jaemin didn’t know what they were saying. His messed up mind was not helping his situation at all.

 

Once he was fed up with trying to understand what they were trying to tell him, Jaemin butted in and said: “Oh, take a look at the time. I’m sorry for not going with you guys. I’m sort of busy, so… See you later!”

 

Without letting the two talk, Jaemin turned on his heel and immediately walked away with a heavy heart and a few tears.

 

-

 

Once he sat back down on his seat and started staring at the clock, Jaemin didn’t do anything else. The poor boy had his mind so full of things that it was as if his other senses became paralyzed, making him look like a statue.

 

Of course, there was still a part of him that was conscious from all of the thoughts drowning his brain in, and that part wanted only one thing: go home.

 

He didn’t want to come across him, much less anyone. He wanted to go home and hibernate in the hopes of having his heavy emotions away the moment his eyes open.

 

Everyone knows that’s not how it works, including him, but he wanted to think that it does.

 

Coming back a bit to his senses, Jaemin blinked to have a clear look at the clock. Afterwards, he heaved a sigh.

 

Almost there.

 

However, he figured that he spoke too soon, because he started to remember the cause of the pain that was slowly growing in his chest, as if his mind had a mind of its own.

 

Give me another chance. Let’s be together again.

 

Just simply imagining him forgetting about the things they went through together for a girl who did not deserve him made his vision blurry—

 

Wait.

 

Jaemin blinked and touched his cheeks, then looked at his fingers.

 

Wet.

 

What?

 

He looked down and secretly took his phone out only to look at his reflection, but he wasn’t able to see it clearly because drops were dropping on his screen.

 

Tear drops.

 

“Class dismissed.”

 

Good.

 

Jaemin hastily packed his things and slung his back on his shoulder, lowering his face to avoid letting people see it. 

 

However, when he stood up and looked at the door, he met the eyes of a certain someone, who seemed shock over what he saw.

 

Bad.

 

Bad, bad, bad.

 

Looking back down, Jaemin hurriedly walked out of the classroom and past him, who started calling his name again and again.

 

As he briskly walked his way home, he tried to block his voice out, but as he did so, his chest clenched more with pain, bringing more sorrow to his eyes.

 

Later on, Jaemin felt something wrap around his wrist and pull him back. He fought back, violently fidgeting his hand away from what took it.

 

Who, rather.

 

“What do you want, Lee Jeno?!” Jaemin snapped, his voice shaking with sudden anger.

 

Jeno’s formerly frustrated face softened at the sight of Jaemin’s beautiful brown eyes framed with tears.

 

“I…” He suddenly felt like his throat became dry despite how he managed to shout Jaemin’s name again and again while following him through the streets.

 

“What do you want?” Jaemin repeated with less anger and more sorrow in his tone. 

 

“I…wanted to see you,” Jeno responded, feeling bad even when he had no idea what was happening between them. “Donghyuck told me you were ignoring him in class. Renjun and Chenle told me you walked out on them. You didn’t go to the table at recess nor lunch.”

 

“I was worried, Jaemin,” He admitted, stuttering while rubbing the back of his neck out of sudden embarrassment and small nervousness. “We all were, but the others probably thought I was worried the most out of all of us, since I always asked them about you.”

 

Jeno looked at Jaemin with a glint of worry shining in his eyes, making the latter almost melt.

 

“Please don’t walk away,” Jeno softly spoke to Jaemin. “If I did something bad, then talk to me about it instead of avoiding me.”

 

_ —because seeing you walk away from me is the most heartbreaking sight to see. _

 

Jaein suddenly felt too embarrassed to even open his mouth and talk. He realized then and there how stupid he was for lashing out on him like that just because jealousy got over him, even when he hadn’t even heard his answer to the question.

 

There was no turning back, though, was there?

 

“Jaemin?” Jeno softly called, waiting for a response from Jaemin.

 

“I’m sorry,” Jaemin muttered under his breath, looking down out of embarrassment while fidgeting with the edge of his uniform. “It’s just that I did something that I shouldn’t have, and I guess karma got to me pretty badly.”

 

“What did you do?” Jeno asked Jaemin, raising his eyebrow as a sign of curiosity.

 

Jaemin bit his lip.

 

How should he tell him?

 

“Well, I may or may not have eavesdropped on a conversation between you and… someone special.”

 

Jaemin looked up at Jeno and saw how his eyes were wide from shock and how his face was strangely red.

 

“You heard that?!” Jeno whisper-shouted.

 

“I’m sorry!” Jaemin immediately apologized, scared that Jeno would hit him out of anger.

 

“Wait—I mean—It’s okay—But—“ Jeno stopped, aware about his sudden stuttering and tongue twisting. After trying to get himself together, he asked: “What are you so sad about, then?”

 

Jaemin knitted his eyebrows together out of confusion, “What do you mean?”

 

“How much of it did you hear?”

 

“Only until she asked to be together with you again.”

 

Jeno’s featured relaxed with a smile curving his lips. 

 

Jaemin blushed out of embarrassment. “What?”

 

“You heard that she wanted to be together with me again, yeah?” He nodded. “You see, I refused.”

 

His eyes went wide out of shock. “Seriously?”

 

Jeno nodded.

 

With that, Jaemin felt like the chewing gum that was his heart finally popped, free from the pain that was making it bigger and bigger. He instead felt happiness wash him over like cold and refreshing water, now that he knew that Jeno didn’t agree.

 

Honestly, he wasn’t going to deny that anymore, but he didn’t want the boy in front of him think of him as something else.

 

Containing himself from showing any form of exaggerated happiness, Jaemin asked: “Why?”

 

Jeno looked at Jaemin with a raised eyebrow. “Why? What do you mean why?”

 

“Why didn’t you agree? You still like her, don’t you?”

 

“Not only are you easily jealous, but also pretty fucking oblivious.” Jeno laughed. “How nice.”

 

“Tell me, you ass.”

 

“Why do you want to know?”

 

“Answer me first!”

 

Jeno laughed again, raising his hands up in surrender. “Alright, alright. I didn’t agree because I realized two things. One, our relationship was pretty unhealthy. Both of us deserved better.”

 

Suddenly, Jeno looked at Jaemin, walked even nearer to him, and smiled while reaching his hand out to wipe his tears away with his thumb.

 

“Two, I already like someone else,” Jeno continued, leaning in to lay a kiss on Jaemin’s forehead and making Jaemin’s heart rate skyrocket.

 

Jaemin looked at Jeno and tried to glare at him, but as the latter smiled more at him, it became more difficult for the former to do so.

 

Chuckling, Jeno grabbed Jaemin by his shoulders, turned him around, then slung his arm around, then slung his arm on his shoulder. “Come on. We still have one last practice to attend.”

 

“I hate you,” Jaemin told Jeno as the two boys walked.

 

“I don’t think so,” Jeno joked.

 

Jaemin looked at Jeno, then smiled at him before kissing his cheek. “Alright, maybe you got me.”


	14. day 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Try listening to “Say You won’t Let Go” by James Arthur while reading this ^^

Gravity is a bitch. Everyone knows that fact.

However, it seemed to become more of a bitch to Jaemin this day, because with every step that he took came a heavier force dragging his feet down deeper and deeper into the cold and cemented sidewalk, as if he was walking on quicksand in the middle of the dryest desert with the hottest weather that anyone could ever think of.

Along with his troubles with his walking were his troubles in breathing, thinking, and calming down. Doubts were threatening to cut the thread that connected him to reality, turning him into a seemingly tipsy idiot trying to make his way to school alive.

In simpler words, Na Jaemin was a nervous wreck.

It was already the day of their performance exam in Music, which meant that it was already the day where he was going to stand on stage in front of a group of people and sing while carrying the huge chance of fucking up on the spot.

Looking at it in a way, it was a shallow issue to fret about, but Jaemin had slight stage fright, so the speck of nothing in everyone's eyes was a piece of everything in his.

"Nana!"

Jaemin's what seemed like endless walking had finally came to a slow stop. He looked up and felt like his sinful soul was washed clean again at the sight of Lee Jeno walking through the crowded corridor with his signature smile plastered on his timeless-like face and his big baggage hung on his shoulders and hands.

"I almost thought that you ditched me," Jeno joked, grinning as he adjusted his hold on the handle of his guitar bag. "I got a little scared."

"You almost made me wish that I did," Jaemin retorted, rolling his eyes. "so you better behave before I change my mind."

"Yes, sir."

Anxiety was bringing Na Jaemin down as much as gravity was bringing down everything on Earth, but because he knew that someone as special as Lee Jeno had his back, he knew he was going to be alright.

-

Before the exam started, the students' Music teacher explained the rules and regulations of the waiting game, but even when her voice was loud and echoing across the lobby, Jaemin couldn't hear her over the loud sound of his heart palpitating in his chest.

At the moment, the young boy's hands were shaking, while his legs were slightly swinging in a restless manner. Despite the low temperature in the venue, small beads of sweat could be seen on his tensed face, amping up the uneasy look he was wearing.

He was basically becoming the very definition of nervous, and he hated it so much, because it seemed as if everyone else could sense it happening to him.

"Nervous?"

Well, maybe except one.

Jaemin turned to Jeno, ready to shoot a "What the heck do you think?" look at him, when he saw a glint of gentleness shining in his eyes, which caused him to feel slight frustration over the odd mixture of feelings messing with his heart.

"Yeah."

Jeno heaved a heavy yet silent sigh. His stare averted from Jaemin's eyes to his hand, then, as if the action was involuntary, he watched as their fingers intertwined, their hands fitting together perfectly like a pair of puzzle pieces.

"Me, too," Jeno admitted under his breath, looking back up at Jaemin with a ghost of a smile seen on his lips. "We can do it, though. We have to, technically, since we can't back out of this."

On the back of Jaemin's mind were his doubts, all piled up and ready to make the tallest building in the world look like a small stick, but all of that was taken down by the feeling of Jeno's lips pressed against Jaemin's cheek.

Jaemin's eyes went wide at the sudden action. He shouldn't be surprised, since they've been doing the same thing to each other for almost two weeks, but even when he reminds himself of it every time he wakes up in the morning, he could not get used to it, and it seems as if he would never any time soon.

What surprised him even more was that it was as if Jeno didn't do it for the dare, and it was as if he didn't know that their whole class—their whole batch were in the same room as them. That, or he did know but didn't care.

Whichever it was, it made Jaemin's heart come back alive after seconds—minutes—hours of dying in a ditch.

"I can do it. You can do it," Jeno hummed, softly stroking the back of Jaemin's hand with his thumb. "We can do it, together."

Jaemin finally smiled after a long while, finally feeling temporarily free from his big and heavy burden of nervousness. He knew that the feeling was only for a few moments, considering that they weren't called to do their turn in the exam yet, but it sure was lovely while it lasted.

"Lee Jeno and Na Jaemin."

Jeno and Jaemin turned their heads strangely in sync to see their teacher waiting for them by the door of the School Auditorium and looking at them as if to tell them "It's your turn."

Truth be told, the two boys wouldn't have recovered from the sudden shocking attack if it weren't for the familiar voices that could be heard from the other end of the lobby, which were cheering so loud that no one could tell if they were actually cheering for them or if they were embarrassing them.

"NOMIN! NOMIN! NOMIN! NOMIN!"

With that type of cheering, it's most likely the latter.

When they realized that they were making everyone around and inside the venue wait, Jeno and Jaemin slowly stood up from their seats and approached the entrance of the venue together while absentmindedly squeezing each other's hands.

Immediately before they were about to enter, Jaemin suddenly stopped in his tracks, Jeno following him and looking at him with a questioning look.

Jaemin looked down to his feet, listening intently to his own loud heartbeat and to his own rapid breathing. His eyes started to sting and his vision started to blur.

However, upon hearing Jeno's voice softly calling his name again and again, Jaemin snapped out of his sea of thoughts and looked back up.

"Hey. Remember what I said. We can do it, together. Alright?"

Jaemin looked at Jeno and shone a weak but sincere smile, thinking to himself about how he was the luckiest boy ever to have him by his side. Out of nowhere, he leaned in and pecked Jeno's cheek.

"Alright."

-

The cold and silent atmosphere didn't help the nervousness churning in the stomachs of the two boys, who were slowly stepping in the venue and on stage with tensed auras surrounding them like a stone blanket. They set foot on the center stage and in front of the teachers, who seemed to examine them from head to toe, then slightly stopping midway to look at a strange sight; their hands. When the two realized this, they immediately released each other's hands, but deep down inside, as the chill started to spread and cling onto their now empty hands, they regretted doing so.

They looked at their Music teacher, who nodded at them, a signal to start. They then looked at each other intently, seemingly having a telepathic conversation, then nodded at each other.

Jeno turned to prepare everything they needed; chairs, microphones and their stands, his guitar, and most especially, himself. Meanwhile, Jaemin remained looking at the teachers, trying to get himself together to utter the words he had been practicing over and over, as an introduction.

"Good morning," Jaemin started after taking a few inhale-exhale breathing cycles. "I am Na Jaemin from Class B and this is my b— partner, Lee Jeno from Class A, and we are here to present what we have practiced for the performance exam in Music."

"What will you do?"

"We will sing, while Jeno will play his guitar."

The teachers nodded, then looked down at their scoring sheet while scribbling words that Jaemin didn't want to know just yet. Jaemin felt a tap on his shoulder, resulting him to turn around. He saw Jeno, sitting down on his tall stool with his guitar on his lap and ready to be used. Jeno gestured at the chair behind Jaemin, telling him to sit down, which Jaemin followed.

"We're ready when you are," their Music teacher told them.

Jaemin and Jeno looked at each other for the nth time that day. Jeno's lips curved into a smile, then parted only to whisper a soft "We can do it."

Jaemin smiled at the small action and nodded, before adding: "Together."

With that, the strings on Jeno's guitar were strummed, and the pleasant sounds echoed through the venue and into everyone's ears. After a while, Jaemin started to sing, then Jeno followed after.

The teachers watching them in front had already seen more than ten or twenty performances, so their may have not been the best in their eyes, but to the two boys, it was the best thing they have ever done together, and really, that's all that mattered to them.

-

After the whole thing, the two were told to step out of the venue and wait in their respective classrooms, which they gladly obliged. They walked out of the lobby, in a silent, shaking, yet strangely calm manner, even when they knew they had a lot of eyes on them. That is, until they reached the outside of the lobby, where their two friends from earlier's embarrassing cheering session, were hanging out without permission.

"How was it?" Renjun asked the two, looking at Jaemin's and Jeno's faces and trying to see the answer he was seeking for.

Renjun and Donghyuck stared at Jeno and Jaemin, waiting for a response that they thought they wouldn't receive until Jaemin broke the silence with a loud "Oh, my GOD."

The two boys then started babbling to themselves, to each other, and to the other two. The atmosphere suddenly became lively again, which was a relief to everyone.

Well, until Jaemin lost all control of his emotions, wrapped his arms around Jeno into a tight hug, and planted a kiss near his lips.

It took the four boys five seconds to let the sudden turn of events sync in their minds. As soon as it did, Jaemin released Jeno and turned into a gigantic tomato, Jeno turned into a lovestruck statue, while Renjun and Donghyuck were screaming their asses off.

 

 

 

  
Yes, they got in trouble.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes im still alive  
> sorry for not updating for so long :( here i am now tho with a new update!!  
> also last chapter soon :(  
> well,,,, is it tho
> 
> ;)


	15. day 14

_"Never gonna give you up, Never gonna let you down, Never gonna turn around and---"_

"Damn it, Jisung Park!" Jaemin cursed in the middle of the morning as he tried to roll across his bed to shut his alarm (that Jisung changed for the nth time that month) off and outdid himself by falling off it with his blanket tying his legs together. From the floor, he reached to his ringing phone on the top of his bedside table, only to have it fall on his face and hit him square on the nose.

After what seemed like five minutes of recovery (while lying down on the floor, seemingly lifeless), Jaemin stared at the ceiling with nearly shutting eyes.

This is going to be a shitty day.

Knock, knock!

"Na Jaemin! Get your ass out of bed already! It's 7 AM!"

Was that Donghyuck?

"It's Donghyuck, by the way!"

This is a shitty day already.

"I'm not going to school," Jaemin shouted out loud enough, so un-energetic that he almost forgot how escaping hell was not as easy as popping a bubble.

"Are you sure?" Donghyuck responded, shouting as loud from outside of the bedroom. "Have you checked what date it is today?"

Jaemin scrunched his eyebrows out of confusion at what Donghyuck said. What was the correlation between the date and not wanting to go to school?

He picked up his phone and checked the date anyway, intrigued.

February 14.

Valentines' day.

What's so special about Valentines' da---

He noticed how the dates before then were highlighted and how the date of that day had a short note: "Two weeks will be over today."

"Jaemi---"

"Donghyuck, don't be a ditching snitch and wait for me there!"  
  
  


-  
  
  


During the trip (through running) from the house to the school, Jaemin was trying to enumerate everything that was twisting and turning his stomach into a three-looped roller coaster, like he was listing down symptoms of some kind of sickness that he had discovered.

 **START NA JAEMIN DIAGNOSIS?**  
YES | NO

 **ARE YOU SURE? NA JAEMIN IS CURRENTLY RUNNING.**  
YES | NO

**STARTING NA JAEMIN DIAGNOSIS...**

**SEARCHING THROUGH THE SYSTEM...**

> Oxygen Level Status: Decreasing.

> Heartbeat Rate Status: Increasing.

> Mind Function Status: Decreasing.

> Urge to Scream on Top of Lungs Status: Increasing.

> Butterflies in Stomach Status: Increasing.

**ANALYZING...**

**VIRUS DETECTED.**

**VIRUS UNDETERMINED.**

**ONE (1) SUGGESTION FOUND.**

**COULD THIS BE [LOVE]?**

-

 _All that running, tripping, screaming at strangers to move away, for nothing_ , Jaemin complained in his head as he heaved a heavy sigh and leaned against a wall.

Apparently, the school set up the entire area with booths and everything else that were related and dedicated to Valentine's Day, as if it was some kind of special holiday that was meant to be celebrated happily.

Ironically, some of the students who attended were the bitter ones who were lowkey looking for someone to make their everyday life sweeter.

Despite the booming sound system from the Dedication Booth, Jaemin felt as if the world fell silent as soon as he started to remember everything before that day. He thought about all the teases his friends used on him before, and the excuses he used to cover up the truths.

He thought about how he used to be one of them until he received his reminder, his reason on why he was no longer so, in the form of a text.   
  
  


> wru

  
hello to you too <

im in front of the dedication booth <

 

> o

> ok

> stay there

 

what ??? <

why ??? <

where r u ??? <

 

Jaemin was starting to glare daggers through the screen of his phone and type a reply to send him when he suddenly felt something firmly hold him by both shoulders, taking away all of the colors in his body out of shock.

Stiffly shifting his vision to the corner of his eye, he saw two super familiar faces smugly smiling at him, then released his breath that he held in his chest.

"Idiots," he breathed out, followed by bursts of laughter from Donghyuck and Jisung.

"Happy Valentine's Day," Donghyuck greeted in a joking manner.

"We love you," Jisung added.

Grunting, Jaemin turned to the two and crossed his arms above his chest.

"What?" Donghyuck said. "You love our company."

"Yeah, and you're not crushing on---"

"That's too far now."

Jisung chuckled at his hyungs, then butted in before the two start bickering. "Jaemin hyung, since you love our company so much, why don't you come with us?"

Jaemin looked at the two, like he was a second away from denying the offer, when he shrugged and said, "Well, I have no other choice, have I?"

With that, Donghyuck and Jisung looked at each other and smiled, then immediately held each one of Jaemin's hands and took him towards somewhere Jaemin was still yet to see.

-

A booth.

They took him to a booth.

Though, he wasn't so sure about what booth it was supposed to be, because all that was there a fancy cloth-covered table and a supervisor who was doing nothing but scrolling through her feed.

He wasn't so sure about why he was staying there either. It was mostly because the two told him to, after so much conviction. If they didn't threaten him

What was making his situation stranger was that he was receiving no message notifications.

Jaemin slouched his shoulders and sighed.

Where the hell were they?

"This next song is dedicated to Na Jaemin, from an anon who is very whipped because wow, this letter is pretty lengthy."

Jaemin's head immediately snapped upward simply to look at the Dedication Booth with all ears to listen to the speaker.

" _Nana, thank you so much for fourteen days together. I have to admit: Before, I did not expect it nor want it, but now, I would be more than happy to do it all again, but that would not happen before I ask you a certain something, right?_ _P.S I dedicated the song we sang yesterday, since we weren't able to perform it."_

What?

"We have him now."

Jaemin turned around and towards the direction of the voices of the newly arrived to see Mark, Renjun, and Chenle holding Jeno, who was wearing the shyest yet shiniest smile on his face that made Jaemin's heart skip a beat.

The supervisor of the booth suddenly stood up and smiled. "Shall we start, then?"

"What?" Jaemin stuttered out, surprised.

Mark, Renjun, and Chenle said some inaudible words to Jeno and smiled at Jaemin before sprinting off, leaving them together with the supervisor.

Jaemin looked at Jeno, worried.

Jeno looked back at him, nervous but still smiling. "Calm down. It's not bad."

"What is it, then?" Jaemin asked.

"You'll see."

The supervisor of the booth took out a small bouquet of flowers which she gave to Jeno, who held it tightly to his chest as he looked down and took slow breathing cycles, as if to calm himself down.

He then looked up at Jaemin straight in the eye, making the latter feel like his entire body is heating up yet frozen in place.

"I think—Well, I hope you heard my letter from the Dedication Booth," Jeno started. "I honestly wanted to write a lot more but then I figured that maybe I should tell it to you instead but...when I looked at you I suddenly forgot everything that I practiced for." He laughed.

"With that said, I'll just tell you the one thing I want to ask of you now."

Jaemin bit his lip, anticipation building up in him with fear of collapsing dwelling below it.

"Will you—" Jeno's voice cracked, making the anticipation indeed collapse, but not what Jaemin feared.

The two cracked a smile and started laughing, breaking the tense atmosphere around them.

"As... As I was saying," Jeno cleared his throat, then did another breathing cycle.

"Will you be mine, _officially_?"

**COULD THIS BE [LOVE]**

YES | NO

 

**FIX THIS?**

YES | NO

"Yes."

Smiling, Jeno stepped closer and gently gave Jaemin the flowers, which, with a closer look, were actually fake and made of candy.

"Happy Valentine's Day," Jeno said, a simple action that made Jaemin's heart swoon in secret.

Excitement taking over him completely, Jaemin pulled the fake flowers that Jeno was still holding and leaned in, closing the gap between them and kissing him square on the lips.

28 kisses.

After a moment, the flustered Jaemin pulled away, looking at the flustered Jeno.

"You are disgusting."

"If you don't like it that much then stop liking me."

"Excuse me? You liked me first."

Insulting. Arguing. Hitting each other. Laughing at each other with each other.

All of that while walking around with their hands and fingers automatically intertwining themselves beyond both boys' attention.

 

**_END._ **   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**BONUS** :

In the background, the supervisor was clutching her chest with a surprised expression on her face.

Renjun, Chenle, and Jisung were watching their best friends like they completed an urgent mission.

Meanwhile, Mark was standing there with crossed arms and a small smirk while Donghyuck was standing next to him, his madly blushing as his expression turned into complete shock


End file.
